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Garmin Watch body battery. Was skeptical initially, but am surprised how well it works. It's a composite of sleep quality for gains (should recharge daily above
by buybackoff 5y ago
Garmin Watch body battery. Was skeptical initially, but am surprised how well it works. It's a composite of sleep quality for gains (should recharge daily above 80 ideally) and physical stress, measured by heart rate variation, for losses.
Quasi-related to the body battery is minimal heart rate while sleeping (the watches automatic "resting" number is often higher, so I look at the chart). Relative to 2-week moving average it's a leading indicator of illness. I have nice charts for my recent covid and common cold, 1-2 days before the symptoms I could see unexplained (e.g. no drinks) higher levels. In absolute terms it correlates with endurance training and recovery after long training sessions (it goes lower with training in general, after a long session it is higher for 1-3 days, when it's back to low level it's full recovery, good time for further training).
Both help in simple decisions such as go to bed earlier, training intensity, whether evening coding session could be productive or better watch a movie, etc.
As a side note, it's funny how alcohol affects both metrics - same as illness + very low battery the next day. The metrics make me think twice and when both are bad it's better to skip drinking even if the context/schedule and subjective feelings are OK for it.
- pc86 5y agoI have a whoop and the recovery metric it tracks (which is a 0-100 number of what seems to be 5-6 parameters in the current version and 8-9 in the upcoming one) is surprisingly good. I too was very skeptical of a single-dimension value but even when I don't have a "reason" to get tired early in the day it's still a good indicator of how the day is going to go.
- kevinmgranger 5y agoI've been unable to get my garmin to track my sleep properly. It has strange ideas about when I fall asleep or when I wake up. Do you have any advice for how to improve that?
- buybackoff 5y agoA tighter, but still comfortable, fit. Also I changed the hand on which I wear it overnight. It used to show BS sometimes before the change. I think it depends on the bed and sleep posture. I do not care about sleep phases or when the watches think I fall asleep, it's approximately correct and that's enough. Hours of sleep mean much less than the body battery increase overnight.
- Sn0wCoder 5y agoMake sure you are not drinking alcohol, avoid stimulates, and hydrate. If you are doing all that and still not going to 100 might be defective. I wear my watch pretty loose and still get great results. I thought mine was not working at first but turns out was drinking to much coffee and alcohol for my body to actually get to 100. Also make sure you are getting minimum 8 hours sleep. When you are at zero can take 10 - 12 to get up to 100 then you will not be starting from zero each night.
- kevinmgranger 5y agoI'm not saying the body battery number was inaccurate. I'm saying it had sleep times and wakeup times that had nothing to do with when I was even in bed.
- Sn0wCoder 5y agoCheck your settings. On mine I need to tell it when I am supposed to be sleeping 11 - 8 that’s how it knows to track sleep. It’s show me sleeping every night at 11 even if I’m not. Garmin instinct fyi.
- bradstewart 5y agoNot exactly an answer to your question, but I ended up getting an Oura ring because of that issue. It's extremely accurate.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoI came to the same conclusion, but using an Oura ring instead. It's good to see 2 different devices and persons, but with the same results. It kinda validate that those are valid metrics.
- graeme 5y agoI do the same with an apple watch. I use Autosleep, which has a morning readiness feature using hrv and waking pulse. I also track sleep total and sleeping pulse. Long run sleeping pulse is a good indicator of my general health. Insufficient sleep will kill my energy. I also weight myself and take weight circumference. Should stay stable or trend down. This takes about 5 min in morning. Time well spent.
- Sn0wCoder 5y agoAlso pay close attention to the Garmin body battery. When I first got it was like I don’t need a device to tell me if I got a good night sleep, but I was wrong. The biggest thing is alcohol, drink around noon golden. Drink up to bed time going to be at zero when you wake up. Went on vacation and drank every day for a week was cruising at zero the whole time. Got back first night good sleep 100! Also staying up late and not drinking enough water will give the same results. Makes you think about drinking more when you got a big day ahead, although like I said can game the body by drinking from noon - 3 then rehydrating before bed. Cheers!
- buybackoff 5y agoI was on vacation in my home country during the record heatwave this June, friends, drinking... by the metrics it was worse than covid :)
- noir_lord 5y agoThe hydration thing, I just got into the habit of dropping my soluble vitamin in a pint of ice cold water every morning and downing it then drinking normally through the day. It takes a while between drinking and it having an affect (variant on numerous factors) but I found the morning fog within an hour of waking up was much reduced just by drinking immediately on waking.
- dinkleberg 5y agoThese metrics (except I used a whoop) are what made me stop drinking. It was hard to justify it to myself when I could not just feel but also see the direct impact it had.
- tra3 5y agoWhat watch do you use?
- buybackoff 5y agoInstinct Solar
- snthpy 5y agoWhat device do you have? I bought the Forerunner 55 for the Garmin Coach and the Body Battery. While the coach has been good the Body Battery has been a complete disappointment. It's never gone above 50. I don't drink alcohol during the week, I exercise, I cut out coffee in the afternoon to see if that made a difference ... but nothing.
- buybackoff 5y agoI have Instinct Solar. And I had a similar period of constantly low battery. I even thought that it was broken. The solution was two weeks vacation in the Mediterranean, after that 100 in the morning became frequent.
- hammock 5y agoGlad to hear you recovered well from covid. Seems like a lot of hospitals have been filling up lately