Smartwatches for health monitoring

[Yann04]

So I recently had a one-week HRV measurement with a FIRSTBEAT bodyguard 3 - a device with two electrodes 24 hours attached to your chest.

My HRV measurements / stress response and stress recovery was very poor. Not surprising, of course.
What was surprising is that my HRV during the night was really low and my recovery was partially during the day.
Meaning, I don’t recover at all at night.

I am 100% bedbound so I’m horizontal whole day

See the example of one typical day:

• red = low HRV and stress on the body
• green = higher HRV and you’re in recovery mode
• Gray line = HRV (just as the the height of the bars)
• Black Line = heart rate

So my HRV is very low at night and apparently my body is working hard
In the afternoon I’m in recover mode - according to my HRV
View attachment 30969

My Garmin seems to think I’m running marathons at night as well ahah. The “recovery” thing tells me that im very stressed at night (when I’m asleep), and less so in the day.

 

[Arfmeister]

The “recovery” thing tells me that im very stressed at night (when I’m asleep), and less so in the day.

Yes, this stressful/non-recovery sleep with low HRV (and high heart rate in my case) might be a crucial part of this disease.

How does your Garmin measure stress?
Do you know the formula?

This ECG Bodyguard device combines low HRV with high heart rate as stress

I’m interested actually in what Garmin model you have?
- my Fitbit was surprisingly accurate at doing the HRV measurement at night vs. the ECG measurement
(but Fitbit only gives one value for the whole night)
- I’m specifically interested in getting LIVE stress scores from Garmin

 

[ScoutB]

What was surprising is that my HRV during the night was really low and my recovery was partially during the day.
Meaning, I don’t recover at all at night.

Has this ever been looked at in a proper study? My nighttime HRV just steadily declined every year I’ve been ill (according to my oura ring anyway), and I’ve heard others report similar stories.

 

[Yann04]

I’m interested actually in what Garmin model you have?
- my Fitbit was surprisingly accurate at doing the HRV measurement at night vs. the ECG measurement
(but Fitbit only gives one value for the whole night)
- I’m specifically interested in getting LIVE stress scores from Garmin

Vivoactive 5

I used to have a fitbit I think it was called charge 5? Not sure. That one seemed to show my sleep to be less chaotic. Though hard to tell if the difference is the new smartwatch or my sleep getting worse.

I’m not sure how useful the live stress scores are but they definitely correlate with how wired I’m feeling. I don’t know if this feature exists but it would be cool if i got a “take a break” notification when the score was high.

I have no idea how the garmin measures stress but I’m pretty sure its HR and HRV mix.

 

[DiBelloBr]

Yes, this stressful/non-recovery sleep with low HRV (and high heart rate in my case) might be a crucial part of this disease.

How does your Garmin measure stress?
Do you know the formula?

This ECG Bodyguard device combines low HRV with high heart rate as stress

I’m interested actually in what Garmin model you have?
- my Fitbit was surprisingly accurate at doing the HRV measurement at night vs. the ECG measurement
(but Fitbit only gives one value for the whole night)
- I’m specifically interested in getting LIVE stress scores from Garmin

I have a Garmin Forerunner 255. It shows Stress Score and Body Battery in real time. I used it 24/7 over the last 3–4 months. At first, it seemed to help guide my daily energy and avoid PEM related to physical exertion (one day I had PEM even though the previous day I had finished with a high Body Battery, because I tried to return to work seeing patients while sitting).

As the days went by, I felt that I was becoming hypervigilant about avoiding stress on the watch, avoiding even small things, and that ended up making me at least mentally more stressed. I’ve been without wearing it for about a week now, and so far the feeling is more relief. It was useful for a while to understand my current limits and to try to correlate them with the measured variables.

 

[Trish]

I think that's an important point. Wearables can be very helpful for some pwME in the early stages where we are learning how to adjust our activities to reduce the chances of getting PEM, or when our health or circumstances change and we have to adjust. But it's a servant, not a master. We need to recognise when it's starting to be a nuisance.

 

[MrMagoo]

I think we need to recognise that, and also that we likely cannot dominate a disease.

For most people even if they exist “perfectly” in accordance with the smartwatch stats etc they will still sometimes be unwell from external factors like weather/hormonal changes/sadness/unknown factors.

This is also true of pacing, but because pacing is less accurate the blame seems to land squarely on the patient for every failure.

Can you blame us, really? We internalise these messages that we can be fine if we just x,y,z yet we can’t. We can be a bit less tired, not cured. We can do a bit more work at times, not be fit for all work all the time. We can have a bit less pain, but not be pain free. We can have a bit less but not a lot less symptoms. We all want to be well. It’s dangled in front of us like a carrot that we can be, yet we probably can’t.

Can’t say that or you get accused of being an “anti-recovery activist”.