Garmin smartwatches have 5 hidden sleep features — and they've transformed how fast I'm falling asleep and how energized I feel waking up

So you've got one of the best Garmin watches and you're tracking your daily steps, workouts and runs.

But what about your sleep and recovery? To feel and perform your best, you should be paying just as much attention to your sleep as you do your training.

The good news is your Garmin watch is on par with the best sleep trackers I've tested this year. In fact, as a marathon runner, my Garmin is the first tracker I go to for a holistic view of my training and recovery stats.

To get the most out of your Garmin from a recovery point of view, you have to look beyond the basic sleep score. After a busy December and a lot of hard training lately, there have been mornings where I've woken up feeling groggy even though my sleep score indicates a sound night of rest.

It takes a deeper dive into individual sleep metrics for me to understand why I'm tired, and I've found there are several underutilized features on Garmin that can help you identify exactly why you’re feeling under-rested, even if you slept for a full eight hours.

5 hidden Garmin sleep features

From stress measuring to notification settings, the following Garmin features can help you stick to a regular sleep schedule and understand what lifestyle and health factors are having an impact on your sleep.

1. Stress

We know too well that your daytime habits, food choices, activity levels and mental wellbeing can have a big impact on how well you sleep at night, and the the Garmin Body Battery and Stress charts are the most honest mirrors of your lifestyle.

Normally, your stress should be in the blue 'Rest' zone (below 25) all night. If you see orange bars while you sleep, it’s a sign that your body is working hard to process alcohol, a heavy late night meal, or fighting off an illness.

If your sleep report continually shows high stress through the night, it could be a sign you need to cut down the cocktails, manage your eating habits for better sleep, or factor in some extra down time.

2. Body Battery

Meanwhile Garmin's Body Battery is an energy monitoring feature that uses heart rate variability, stress, sleep and activity data to show your real-time energy levels on a scale of 5 to 100.

It acts like a fuel gauge with good sleep charging it and stress and exercise draining it.

This feature can help you understand when your body could benefit from extra rest, so you can really prioritize those healthy sleep practices, like a calming nighttime routine.

Garmin's Body Battery feature essentially helps you manage activity, rest and recovery for better health decisions. It encourages you to strike a healthy balance between training and rest (no burnout here).

3. Respiration Rate

Also tucked away in the Sleep details is a metric called Respiration Rate, which measures your breaths per minute (brpm) while you're sleeping.

A sudden spike in sleeping respiration can be an early warning sign of a respiratory infection or high physical strain.

On some models, you can also see Breathing Variations, which can help you spot potential sleep disorder issues like sleep apnea (though it is not a medical diagnosis, and you should consult your GP rather than your Garmin if you're concerned).

4. Sleep Coach

Newer Garmin models — from the Venu 3, Forerunner 255 to the Fenix 7 — have a dedicated Sleep Coach and Nap Detection features.

The Sleep Coach calculates your 'sleep need' in real-time, adjusting your nightly sleep goal based on your HRV status, activity history and any naps you take through the day.

For example, if you take a 20-minute nap, the Sleep Coach will actually reduce your nightly sleep requirement to help you avoid the grogginess you can feel after oversleeping.

On the flip side, if your Garmin thinks you've been training hard, it will recommend you sleep a little longer to support physical recovery and fight fatigue.

5. Sleep Mode

There's a lot of recent research, like this study by Vitality and London School of Economics, that proves sleep regularity (rather than sleep duration) is the key predictor of quality sleep and good health.

Astonishingly, the afore-mentioned study found sleeping and waking up at roughly the same time night in night out can add four years to your life expectancy — and the Sleep Mode on your Garmin smartwatch can help you maintain that health-boosting consistent sleep schedule.

Go to your Device Settings in the Garmin connect app or on your watch itself, then to System > Sleep Mode > Schedule. Here you can set your desired sleep and wake time for each day of the week (remember science suggests you should keep it the same every day for the best sleep quality and health outcomes).

Garmin Sleep Mode automatically minimizes interruptions and adjusts settings (like backlight, notifications, and touch) during your scheduled sleep window to help you rest, while still tracking sleep data like movement and heart rate.