iPhone Apple Health (Sleep) vs. Garmin Connect sleep

[Silickon]

Hi. I have a Garmin Instinct watch, which I wear 24 hours a day. I have always tracked my sleep in the Garmin Connect app, but now I would like to try using Apple Sleep in Apple Health.

Health is set up to receive sleep information from my Garmin watch, and not my phone, but I’m confused that two apps can tell me such different sleep results when they get their data from the same source.

Garmin almost seems to think that I either sleep poorly or only fairly every night, where Apple Health says I sleep really well every night (which I know is definitely not true, as I’m awake a lot during the night).

What are your experiences with sleep tracking in Apple Health vs. Garmin?

 

[pacorob]

I also own a Garmin watch (Forerunner 255 Music) and wear my watch daily also during the night. The output in the Garmin app seems pretty accurate. I haven't looked into the data in Apple Health app before as far as sleep data is concerned. I just checked the Apple Health app and see that indeed for last night sleep it shows a difference as well:
84/100 score Garmin app vs 98/100 in Apple Health app, Garmin restless moments: 36 vs Apple Health 19/20 interruptions (not sure if these two can be compared though)

Side note: I do know that Garmin limits certain data (e.g. GPS location) to be shared with Apple, however it appears sleep data is not affected by it. I do sync data from Garmin to Apple Health to see the data in some third party apps/widgets that only support Apple Health for running data.

 

[MChild62]

Same issue, but I'm starting to doubt the accuracy of the Garmin's interpretation I
used a Fitbit (Inspire 3) to track my sleep for 3 years and I think it did a fair job. After Google forced an annoying update to its AI-assisted app, I switched to Garmin a couple weeks ago (Venu 4). I wore both at first and noticed only minor differences in the reported data and some small differences in the interpretation, with the Garmin generally giving less weight to certain sleep stages, ie, deep and REM sleep, and more to the total hours of sleep.
I've been comparing its data interpretation with the Apple Health app, and the differences are huge. This morning I woke up, as on most days, without alarm and felt rested. The Garmin gave me a rating of 65 (poor) on 6:40 hours of sleep, which is about average for me, as I'm 64 years old. I do not understand the poor rating since the Garmin counted over 1hr of deep sleep and over 90 minutes of REM, both generally good for me. The Apple Health app scored the same data an 88 ("high"), which is closer to how I actually feel and I think takes into account my age.
The Garmin's pessimism seems based on its assumption that I need 8.5 hours of sleep, which is a bit unrealistic for someone my age, and that last night I needed another 50 minutes of total sleep. The Apple Health app seems to give greater weight to the sleep stages. Apple Health seems optimistic but overall closer in interpretation to my Fitbit (which was based on its own data that was not shared with Health).
I'll keep tracking to see how the Garmin fares with its claimed ability to match my sleep pattern with my natural circadian rhythm. Need another week or so of data for that.

 

[pacorob]

Same issue, but I'm starting to doubt the accuracy of the Garmin's interpretation. The Garmin gave me a rating of 65 (poor) on 6:40 hours of sleep, which is about average for me, as I'm 64 years old.
The Garmin's pessimism seems based on its assumption that I need 8.5 hours of sleep, which is a bit unrealistic for someone my age, ..

I've checked what Garmin writes on their website and they indicate that they measure (five factures Garmin sleep coach.., sleep tracking) with 7.5 hours of sleep for people age 65 and up so there you have the reason.

They also indicate:

"Adults generally need between seven and nine hours of sleep. But just how much sleep you need varies.
Garmin sleep coach uses your age, daily and longer-term activity levels, recent sleep history, naps and heart rate variability (HRV) to estimate your personal sleep need in 10-minute intervals.
Sleep coach won’t ever recommend you get less than seven hours or more than nine hours of sleep. While adults under age 35 need around eight hours of sleep as a baseline recommendation, that number decreases as you age. Experts recommend adults over age 65 get around 7.5 hours of sleep. "

 

[MChild62]

I've checked what Garmin writes on their website and they indicate that they measure (five factures Garmin sleep coach.., sleep tracking) with 7.5 hours of sleep for people age 65 and up so there you have the reason.

They also indicate:

"Adults generally need between seven and nine hours of sleep. But just how much sleep you need varies.
Garmin sleep coach uses your age, daily and longer-term activity levels, recent sleep history, naps and heart rate variability (HRV) to estimate your personal sleep need in 10-minute intervals.
Sleep coach won’t ever recommend you get less than seven hours or more than nine hours of sleep. While adults under age 35 need around eight hours of sleep as a baseline recommendation, that number decreases as you age. Experts recommend adults over age 65 get around 7.5 hours of sleep. "

excellent, thanks! so as suspected, the Garmin is just set to give more weight to the quantity of the sleep whereas the Apple Health app weighs more the sleep stages. by coincidence, I've now completed the three weeks needed to calibrate the watch with my own sleep rhythms. The sleep coach now recommends 7.40 hours for me, although it's optimal bed time is 11.20pm and optimal wake up is 6.20am. So it does seem to have realized I need less sleep than before, but as you indicate it won't go below 7.5 hours. And this even when it defines my "optimal" bed/wake up being a total of 7 hours (which I see as a realistic goal as it's hard for me to get more than 6.5 hours of sleep.)
Like all these apps, i think it's important to use them as helpful guidance to get better rest rather than infallible truth.