Fitness watch -why does it think I am stressed when asleep?

I usually wear a fitbit which does enough for me but my husband this week decided I should try his Garmin watch. Never again. It started buzzing like crazy tellimng me I had an abnormally high blood pressure. It paniched me. Fortunately we have a blood pressure monitor which showed I was fine.
No Garmin for me .

I find that my Garmin tells me I have been asleep since about 19.00 sometimes, when I might have been watching tv for example. It shows a ridiculous number of hours sleep when I have just been trying to regulate my breathing, deep breathing for example.
The easiest way really not to show ‘stress’ at night though is to remove the watch when you settle down to sleep I find.

I don't have a watch. I have my mobile in an over the shoulder little case which I wear all the time. It has an app that counts my steps which is all I want to know. I like having my phone with me constantly so I can accept calls and messages, and also if I am taken ill or have a fall, I have a means of getting help. This gives my daughter comfort too as I live on my own.

Thank you Dancinjay I will think of the stress as physical energy being used not mental stress. My worry is also that my garmin Lily thinks I’m not resting when I’m asleep, even when in deep sleep, so it tells me every day that I didn’t sleep well enough and may be more tired than usual. Actually although I’ve never fallen asleep easily, I sleep better now than when I was working- when I would often wake with work or elderly parent related worries, so I dread to think what the garmin would have made of my sleep back then! My life since loosing my parents and then retiring has been so much less busy- although our disabled son still needs our care.
I must look at the body battery - ( because it says I do not rest when asleep) which usually drops close to zero most evenings- to see what I can do to increase the numbers.

Yes Karmalady, sometimes I think why am I so tired and realise that my body battery is down. Not really figured out how to raise it again except by resting - perhaps that's the idea.
I love looking at trends and data so perhaps that's what I like

Garmin giving me sleep details again for last night and it shows good sleep, again. Very re-assuring and helpful. Good sleep is healing and knowing that I do have good sleep takes any effort out of trying to sleep, which actually keeps us awake Big tick for that and stopped me trying too hard

So far so good

Body battery too, if low at the start of the day, it is a signal to take things a bit easier that day eg I will do a flat walk instead of a hill walk

My husband has some kind of fitbit. He hardly moves from his desk all day, does no exercise.
On the very rare occasions that he has to walk a short distance, it tells him that he's overdoing it and to take it easy.

I have a Garmin Instinct2s and I love it. Like Margiknot I was increadibly confused when I first got it about the stress reading. Then I realised that it wasn't monitoring mental stress (which is how we tend to interpret the word) but stresses on the body. Therefore anything that involves movement will have a stress effect, try watching tv without knitting for a short while and see what the readings say. My thoughts are that it is another way of understanding how your fitness changes over time. eg If a certain activity registers a stress reading of 50 as you get fitter the same activity may only read as 30. I rarely use it, it is just a curiosity. But understanding that it wasn't assessing my mental well being made it - well less stressful. HTH

I love my Apple Watch. I have had it a few years now so I can see lots of health trends. It doesn’t measure stress so that is not something I give any thought to.

I have a fitbit charge5 I use it for step counting mostly, but it insists on telling me I'm asleep when I'm watching tv. So sometimes it says I've had a lot more sleep than I have had. Frequently in the morning, I can get up, first stop bathroom, then into the lounge to open the blinds then to the kitchen to take the tablets and feed the cat, potter in the kitchen to put dishes away etc, then finally into the bathroom for shower . Back to the bedroom to get dressed and my fitbit tells me I've done 6 steps!! When it gives up the ghost I shall go back to a normal watch.

I have now a glory fit after 3 fitbits, even though it shows all movements for me that is a good thing.
Keep moving is my aim not sitting or resting too much, I find if I relax too much I sleep, all movement is good movement

I love my Apple Watch. Use it all the time to count steps and motivate more exercise. Use it to set alarms when cooking, check how good my sleep is, check my heart rate etc etc.

I do like numbers and analysing though!!

DD1 and DH use theirs to monitor health, exercise, steps, sleep etc etc etc .It's taken over their lives to a certain extent and they get stressed if the watch says steps are low, heart rate high, not walked enough, run enough etc. The watches run their lives and make them stressed and in turn make me stressed! I am too busy to get involved with a watch telling me to do things. Bad enough DH!

Cossy

I have an Apple smart watch which I really like, it monitors all round exercise and steps, sleep function seems very accurate (according to my husband), it also does heart rate and has lots of nice but not needed functions to keep me busy!

I’m with you. I love my Apple Watch and it shows me when I have had deep sleep and when I have been restless. I use the stopwatch on it quite a lot when I am cooking.

I have an Apple smart watch which I really like, it monitors all round exercise and steps, sleep function seems very accurate (according to my husband), it also does heart rate and has lots of nice but not needed functions to keep me busy!

I am a first time user with a garmin that I have used for three days and two nights. I know it is still collecting my background data, it will be for the full week

Mine told me that my stress was high when I was just relaxed and knitting. I just laughed. All I want from mine tbf is to know hrv on a continuing basis. Its a nice watch anyway and I quickly changed the silicone band to a very comfy stretch nylon band, very cheap from A.

I do also like the sleep details, to see how much actual REM sleep I am getting

The one that gets me is when driving a hired van if I stray slightly from the middle of the lane, for example to pass a parked car or avoid a pothole, it flashes up a warning that I must be tired and to take a break!

Thank you both. You are of course right, I should ignore the wrist worn devices attempts to ( mis) analyse sleep and stress!
In the past I wore a simple mechanical step counter and a separate traditional watch, then transitioned to a simple fitness device that did both, for many years.
I think the problem may be that the watch system uses heart rate variability to assess stress and fitness, which may be inappropriate for someone with my health issues and medication. I upgraded to the recent device in part to try and improve my fitness- but maybe I should just trust myself to know what to do!
My husband has a more advanced fitness watch ( also a garmin) and when we walk together it’s interesting to note the differences in how far we have walked- mine (a simpler device so uses my phone in my bag for GPS) gives shorter distances- his is more accurate.
Interestingly his watch gives a fitness age several decades younger than his actual age whilst mine only knocks a few years off!
It’s also a bit disappointing as a simple watch- as it will only do one thing at once- it cannot for instance show the time if busy recording a run - or in my case a walk!

Personally, I think they’re a total waste of money. We are all different, we all function according to our physical health/mental health/dynamic situations so haw can a device possibly give an accurate account of when we’re stressed or had enough sleep?
I know my body, I am fully aware of my health status, I know when I am in pain, I know when I’ve had enough sleep, I know my physical limitations and ultimately I am the main person responsible for keeping all that on tract. Don’t need a fancy watch for that. Listen to your bodies, take responsibility for your wellbeing.

My watch tells me I always have normal levels of stress. The times I have been stressed do not show as high, nor does it show as low when asleep, so I do not think this function works well.
The step counter also counts arm movement so it is inaccurate.
I find the sleep app seems quite accurate and shows my deep, light and REM sleep, as well as times when I am awake. My granddaughter wore it one night and it showed much longer periods of deep sleep, which is normal for young adults.