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I used to be someone who might have a single beer with dinner a few nights per week. When I got a Garmin and saw what it did to my stress levels and sleep, I es
by _qua 3y ago
I used to be someone who might have a single beer with dinner a few nights per week. When I got a Garmin and saw what it did to my stress levels and sleep, I essentially stopped drinking at all except for rare social situations.
In addition to improving the numbers, I noticed a qualitative improvement in my sleep, energy levels, and exercise recovery.
- esel2k 3y agoWhat are measurements for stress levels? Are they accurate enough?
- p_j_w 3y agoI may be wrong, but I think it's just heart rate and heart rate variability.
- occz 3y agoI find that I can pretty consistently see an increase in resting heart rate by several beats per minute the day after drinking, an elevated skin temperature and a reduction in Deep- and REM-sleep. Particularly heavy drinking will manifest itself as a large drop in heart rate variability.
- nradov 3y agoGarmin wearable devices display a proprietary stress metric from their Firstbeat Analytics subsidiary. This is basically just heart rate variability (HRV) normalized to the user's baseline. https://www.firstbeatanalytics.com/en/features/all-day-stress-recovery/ https://www.firstbeatanalytics.com/en/features/all-day-stres... As for accuracy, compared to what? Any definition of "stress" is inherently somewhat arbitrary and subjective. There seems to be a decent correlation to how I'm feeling. But the metric isn't really actionable for most people.
- jurassicfoxy 3y agoWhether the measurements are accurate enough is not clear, but they are certainly precise enough. I (and all my friends) can easily see huge differences in HRV on nights of drinking, it's pretty amazing.
- Aromasin 3y agoI had the same experience. It puts things into circumspect when you can physically see how erratic things like heart rate and sleep stage times differ with just a single drink. The difference for my was so stark you'd think it were a bug if it weren't for the fact I could spot the pattern and test to see the truth of things.
- jeffbee 3y agoOK but once you've learned this fact (that I think you could have learned from numerous sources without any technology), what is the ongoing value of the sleep tracker? I feel it is in the category of things that you learn from but then stop needing, including a cadence meter on a bicycle, bathroom scales, and similar devices.
- lukeschlather 3y agoYou never really know when it might matter. One huge thing is when I have a serious illness I can see my heart rate remains about 80bpm all night long. I know my immune system has quieted down when my nighttime heart rate gets back down in the 50s. This doesn't even require accurate sleep tracking. (In fact the watch has a hard time even noticing I'm asleep when I'm that sick, but it doesn't really matter, it's very useful.) I also notice similar things related to heavy exercise etc.
- hunter-gatherer 3y agoDo you not get fever dreams? Even if I have a slight fever (say 100) my dreams are uniquely different, so I always know when I have a fever at night. Hard to explain "fever dreams" if you don't get them...
- lukeschlather 3y agoI've seen my heart rate elevated when I don't have a fever, and it can take several days to fully recover. Also no, I don't get fever dreams.