Garmin Index Sleep Monitor In-Depth Review: Worth It?

They should place a warning: Do not use on your face, eventhough...

I’m happily wear my 265 through the night. Is there any benefit to me in having this new sleep monitor?

I feel like this would be mainly used by someone who doesnt own a sleep tracking watch at all. It seems like if you were bothered by a watch , you'd be bothered by this .

Hold this L Garmin. Time to take ur throne back Polar. Go Polar❤

How does this work with the morning report on your watch? If you’re not wearing the watch at night, does it still show you everything?

It’s going to rain here on Saturday. Can you move it to Monday?

Verry interesting 👌😎

Was just wondering, Can't i just buy a similar band and insert my watch instead of the pod?

seems like a missed opportunity to not make this device more than a sleep tracker. what prevents this from being an bicep HR sensor that feeds your watch HR data during workouts? from being worn when not working out allowing garmin users to wear mechanical or smartwatches? Seems like the hardware allows for way more possibilities than the software does.

No

Does this augment the amoled watch lineup whereby battery life becomes much less important because you can now charge your watch whilst you sleep and not miss out on any sleep metrics?

7 days of battery for only tracking sleep !! isn’t that weak ? also i dont think anyone would mind if there an extra device there and its only a battery and it gives it like 20 days of tracking

What no watches on your ankles😂😂that's wasted space

I've been sleeping with my Fenix for years before they even did sleep data.... If your watch bothers you, this seems cool.

How is the true-up integration for this? I've found true-up to be pretty poor in the past. Will my Fenix 7 pull my overnight sleep data, HRV, etc after the Sleep Index has synced and therefore will it update my training readiness and similar metrics? I think with all the talk from Garmin users about the potential Whoop-equivalent band, the main thing will be to understand whether it is released primarily as an outright device or designed more to complement existing devices with full data integration between the two.

I have sleep apnea, and the metrics work like a charm use a Garmin forerunner 255) Before my deep sleep was less than 12m and now it’s 1h plus . Reminder that I use a CEPAP for my apnea’s. So if you have any sleep disorders use a Garmin or something similar to see what’s your sleep pattern. Great review as always 🙌🏻🙏🏻

Epix 2 Pro in my wife's underwear mod. Trying this tonight. Good review.

Good video Ray and while I have many Garmin toys, this won't be one. For the past nine years I've worn either my Fenix 3HR or 8 to sleep and never missed a beat or noticed my watch. In fact the 8 with its red night light makes wearing it pretty handy in fact.

I want a ring. Get to it, Garmin.

Sleep stage data is important. My garmin is low on awake time every night. I lay still wide awake and it says I'm asleep. And if I don't move my wrist every few minutes it says I fall asleep way before I actually do. If this was more accurate on fall asleep time and stage data it might be worth getting but it sounds like it uses the same exact algorithm that other garmin watches use. Really disappointing.

Awesome review! Question & a comment:
1 - does it stop tracking any information after it registers the wake up time?
2 - Bigger point - I know it's using the elevate 5.0 but dear Lord it has all six of the diodes! even though only two are used on all Garmin devices for ongoing physiological tracking! So it's got the literal hardware built into it to do workout tracking! When can we just turn it on for that for workouts?! Maybe have that be the heart rate monitor that goes to the watch that's off to the side?! Because I find the Coros band and even the verity sense to not be as reliable as the elevate 5.0 would be on the bicep, and I'm tired of wearing a chest strap! Tired tired tired of it! Give me the Garmin-sleep-tracking-but-now-for-workout device!

swing and miss. Lets see if Polar does better. I dont want to be shuffling device. Someone copy whoop already and dont charge and arm and leg. Whoop has winning product how much easier can it be.

Never snooze!

I wonder if they'd sell that band separate, or if could get my MIL to make one! 😅 i currently slide my fenix 6s on a nylon/velcro strap up my arm if I feel like wearing a different watch, but I'd rather have something more comfy but I'm not at all crafty....🧶⛴️🪡 thanks for the idea, Garmin! 💡

No one asked Garmin to improve their hardware. Everyone asked Garmin to improve their software.

Where's the Tempe sensor replacement Garmin!?!?!?!?!

The accuracy of your devices is amazing. My Garmin Instinct 2 has NO CLUE if I'm sleeping or not. It basically just spits back the sleep schedule I provided as my actual sleep times.

I think the better question I’m regards the future is, will Garmin make a armband heart rate strap? Coros is beating them there. It’s so much more comfortable than garmins chest strap.

Resting heart rate of 35 bpm? You must need CPR to wake up in the morning!

Ordered as soon as I saw it on Insta, THEN, realised if there are any reviews out already that'd be DC. I easily wear my T8 to bed so look forward to seeing differences if any.

This might also be helpful for people like me, who prefer not to use a Garmin watch but still use a Garmin bike computer. With this, the training assistance related features could become more accurate due to the additional sleep-related data.

Does this push data from Garmin Connect to Training Peaks? If so, I’m dumping my Oura !

Good review but I have to disagree with you about the importance of sleep stages. I suffer from severe sleep apnoea and am very interested in the subject of sleep. While sleep duration is important it is the quality of sleep that is even more so. 8 hours of sleep with little or no deep or rem stages will not be restorative and really impairs your daytime cognitive abilities as well as long term brain health. Ignore sleep stages at your peril.

How hard is the vibration? I have a FR265 and I won't wake up at all with the alarm on the watch.

No ECG is really disappointing

Exactly what I’ve been waiting for! Makes total sense to me and my needs. Requested it many times through Garmin’s website and in the forum, as have many others. Can’t wear my Epix 51mm at night because it’s too big! keeps me awake! Also a better light seal with this band. Great review DC, as always…. Ordered one immediately after!

This sleep tracking device could be a useful option for Apple Watch users or cyclists who already use a heart rate strap with their bike computer but don’t want to invest in a pricey Garmin watch.

DC Rainmaker. Thanks. you're da best

Thanks for the review, I was really hoping for all day tracker like this from Garmin. I see you have been wearing the AWU a lot lately, could/would you use that as your main watch over a Garmin?

Give that a spottier strap and it generally a connect whoop.

I can see myself getting only the strap and attaching my smartwatch to it...
Same metrics, more comfort at the cost of detaching it from its strap once a day...

Always great to see your tech coverage and your evolving tan lines. 😊

Would love a real in-depth head to head vs Oura. I wear my Garmin watch and Oura to sleep. The Garmin I want overall tracking relative to training programming, but the Oura I want for real in-depth sleep analysis. You’re kinda of saying that’s not accurate anyway, but things like body temp sensing have been helpful to me and Oura’s HRV tracking is much more sensitive than Garmin’s, which I find useful for indicating recovery.

Working in 24/7 shifts i can say the Garmin algorhythm has a huge problem in understanding when or how i sleep, it's quite messed up. It seems to be savvy only, if you live in 24hour day cycles. Hope they can fix this.

I turned off all the notifications on my vivosmart 5 and it gets great battery life now. I would buy one that was smaller and had no screen in a heartbeat

I have fenix 6x for multiday hikes in the mountains, but I still use it for day to day activity tracking, its huge, heavy and not very comfortable to wear while sleeping home, so this device make sense, but will wait for a price drop.

No thanks. If Garmins optical sensors on their watches is anything to go on this will be highly inaccurate.

Appreciate your videos. I will chime in and say sleep stages is actually not an unimportant thing, rather the more important data, as the information goes directly to how each stage impacts health. Garmin, and others, would do better in leaving sleep stages out if they cannot achieve a higher accuracy—having low level accuracy to an uninformed consumer can actually do harm by giving a false understanding about the quality of sleep based solely on length of sleep time. Keep up the good work!

So basically they have removed the screen from old stock instinct 1, placed it into old sock and asked 160 bucks.

Get a life, an Analog Life. This stuff is getting a bit too crazy for me. YMMV