Hate Wearing Your Smartwatch to Bed to Track Your Sleep? Garmin’s Got a New Fix.

I never could get used to wearing a watch to bed. It’s like wearing my street clothes between the sheets. Something always feels off. Maybe it’s the watch’s association with being out and about, working or socializing or running errands.

Not to mention the fact that watches, like phones, are nasty little germ magnets that pick up all the grime and stink of the day and are cleaned way too infrequently. I don’t want that resting near my pillow.

Garmin’s smartwatches were no exception. But as of today, they’ve launched a sleep tracker that slips around your arm. The Sleep Index Monitor sells for $170. You can buy it today. Although Garmin’s own website says it ships out in three to five weeks and Amazon says it’s temporarily out of stock (it just launched today), Garmin’s press release says it’s available now.

Regardless of whether they update the shipping date over the next day or two, you can place your order and get one of the early ones as soon as it’s ready to ship out.

what it tracks

Garmin’s Connect app, to which the Monitor syncs, gives you a comprehensive breakdown of your sleep patterns. First and foremost is the sleep score, which sums up and generalizes the quality of your previous night’s rest.

“Every morning, receive a personalized score (0-100) for last night’s sleep based on sleep duration, stress, sleep stages and more,” says Garmin in its June 18, 2025 press release announcing the Sleep Index Monitor’s launch.

You also get data on your sleep stages, heart rate variability, respiration rates, menstrual cycles, and more. You can find the full list here.

As my guide to the best sunrise alarms should hint, I’m a big fan of gentler solutions to waking up in the morning than the blare of an alarm clock. The Sleep Index Monitor feature that grabbed most of my attention was the “smart wake alarm” feature.

Before you nod off, the Garmin Connect app has you set a range of time during which you want to wake up. The Sleep Index Monitor does what it does best—monitors your sleep—and waits until you enter a lighter stage of sleep during that time range.

Waking up from a lighter stage of sleep is less jarring than from a deeper stage of sleep. We all know how it feels to be roused suddenly and violently out of REM sleep, the deep stage during which you dream, by a blaring alarm. Then the band will gently vibrate you to wake you up. Brilliant.

Unlike a smartwatch, you can remove the monitor from the armband and toss it in the washing machine. Nice touch for those of us who prefer to keep our bed clothes (and accessories) separate from our day clothes and watches.