The rumours are true. Garmin has unveiled a new sleep and health tracking armband, designed to help you get on top of your rest and recovery for peak physical performance.
Instead of a watch, the new screenless sleep tracking device sits in a machine-washable band that fits comfortably around your upper arm. It also has an impressive 7 night battery life.
The tracker keeps tabs on your sleep stages, heart rate variability (HRV) status, blood oxygen saturation, breathing rate, skin temperature and overall sleep quality and gently vibrates to wake you up peacefully, helping you feel refreshed rather than groggy.
Similar to some of the brand's premium activity trackers, the device also measures changes in skin temperature which can be an early predictor of illness.
Release date: June 2025
Sizes: Two sizes (S-M and L-XL)
Warranty: 2 years
Price: $169.99 at Garmin
As a screenless device, the Garmin Sleep Monitor is similar to the wrist-worn Whoop band. In terms of sleep tracking, it will offer similar insights to the best smart beds and mattresses you can buy online (namely, the Eight Sleep Pod and Sleep Number mattresses), but for a fraction of the price.
These beds are built with world-class sleep tech that measures every aspect of your sleep and generally costs upwards of $1000. Meanwhile, the Garmin tracker packs these sensors into a compact arm band that cost $169.99/£149.99.
“We are thrilled to add the Index Sleep Monitor to our suite of innovative health and wellness products. Wearing this smart sleep band every night can provide in-depth sleep insights and a more complete picture of fitness and recovery so users can wake up ready to seize the day," says Susan Lyman, Garmin Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing.
Garmin Index Sleep Monitor: Price
The Garmin Index Sleep Monitor is available in two sizes (S-M and L-XL), which will both retail at $169.99/£149.99. This price includes the sleep monitor and light-weight band.
The cheapest Garmin watch (the Forerunner 55) retails at $149.99 /£179.99. For this extra $10 you can get a daytime health tracker alongside basic sleep tracking. But if you're looking for a device solely focussed on getting into the nitty gritty details of your sleep rather than daytime activities and steps etc, the Index Sleep Monitor is the one for you.
This sleep tracker is the first of its kind from Garmin. The Index Sleep Monitor is its first product focussed purely on sleep quality and recovery. Therefore, we can only compare its price to sleep trackers from outside the brand.
The most notable comparison is the Whoop 5.0 band released in May this year. Whoop operates a unique pricing system where, instead of paying for the sleep tracking device upfront, you pay an annual subscription starting at $199/£169 per year.
Immediately, you can see the Garmin's one-off payment is less than a one year subscription, suggesting you're getting better value with the Garmin Index Sleep Monitor rather than the rival Whoop band.
Though, a word of warning, Garmin has recently introduced a subscription fee putting AI-powered insights and an enhanced performance dashboard behind a paywall. However, existing features in the Garmin Connect app remain free and there's no indication that the new sleep monitor will require additional fees.
Garmin Index Sleep Monitor: Features
Honing in on your sleep health, the new Garmin device gives you a personalized sleep score every morning based on sleep duration, sleep stages, stress levels and breathing rate. It features Garmin's well-loved Body Battery energy monitoring that helps you understand how well rested your body is, so you can decide whether to hit the gym hard or take it easy.
Sensors in the band track your overnight respiration rate, breathing variations and HRV to help you understand how well your cardiovascular system functions while you rest. These metrics give an indication of stress levels and how restorative your sleep has been.
It also measures changes in your skin temperature which can potentially indicate illness. This measurement can also help women stay on top of their menstrual cycle, providing period predictions and ovulation estimates and helping them track energy levels in line with menstrual stages.
Another impressive feature of the Index Sleep Monitor is the smart wake alarm. The device identifies when you are in a lighter phase of sleep around your desired wake up time and gently vibrates to wake you up, making for a more gradual, smooth transition from sleep to wakefulness, helping you get over sleep inertia.
If you don't own a separate Garmin smartwatch, the Index Sleep Monitor directly syncs your sleep data to the Garmin Connect app. If you're a Garmin watch-wearer, the smart band sends your sleep metrics to your watch and Garmin app, giving you a more comprehensive view of your fatigue levels and health, straight to your wrist.
Garmin is the brand behind five out of 10 of the best running watches we've tested this year. So, they clearly know what they're doing when it comes to helping runners make and track, progress. But can they succeed in the sleep industry too? We'll report back with a full Index Sleep Monitor review.
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