Three Things I Liked About the Garmin Sleep Band After My First Night
I woke up this morning after my first night with the Garmin Index , and so far it’s lived up to my expectations — incredibly comfortable and effortless to use. Just put it on before bed, and it does the work. I’m not sure it’s worth $170, though. (I’m working on a full review of this device, and I’ll compare it to competitors from Whoop and Amazfit.)
You don’t need to interfere with the application for it to work.
All I had to do was plug it in and set up a smart alarm in the app, then snooze it until bedtime. (Yes, I’m testing a smart alarm, hopefully it will work better than the smart alarm on the Vivoactive 6. )
The best part is, you don’t need your phone to snooze your alarm in the morning, or even turn it off. When a gentle buzz woke me up, I reached up and slapped my hand. Nothing. So I double-tapped the device, and that was the beauty of it. It gave a double vibrating confirmation and let me sleep for a few more minutes.
When I sleep on my phone, I constantly confuse the stop and snooze buttons. I kept wondering what to do when I want to turn off the alarm completely. In the end, I realized that the answer is simpler than I thought: just take off the bracelet, and it understands that you are not sleeping.
It’s incredibly convenient.
I don’t know how well this bracelet will hold up over time — it’s thin and wide, and I’m worried about it fraying or bunching up. But when I went to bed, I appreciated that it wasn’t stretchy like a watch band. (I’ve worn the Whoop bicep bracelet to bed many times, and it’s fine, but this one is better.)
The strap is 6.5 cm wide and has soft velcro along its entire length. (I was choosing between sizes and took the S/M strap; it fits well.) The fabric is elastic. Therefore, it does not press on the hand or cut into the skin.
The alarm clock vibration is soft.
This is probably both a plus and a minus. The default vibration level was set to the highest of three. When it vibrated to wake me up, it repeated a cycle of four vibrations: light, medium, strong, strong, and then light again. This allowed me to respond to the light vibration alert when I first felt it if I was a light sleeper, but it definitely did a good job of waking me up if I had overslept.
And yes, I tested this by putting the alarm clock aside several times in a row. For science.
What I’m still interested in
My main question about this device is whether the smart alarm will work at all. My doubts are based on my experience with the Vivoactive 6, Garmin’s first smart alarm watch. Every night when I tested it, I set my wake-up time to between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m., and every morning I was woken up at 7:30 a.m. sharp.
I also want to see how the band holds up to wear and tear. They say it’s machine washable. Extra bands are $49.99, so they’ll last longer. I don’t pay much attention to band reviews for most devices, since you can usually get a better band for $10-$20 if you don’t like the one that came with your watch. But when you only have one option, it better be a good one.