Some healthy enthusiasts swear by smart watches as a way to monitor tight levels, but a recent study questions this common use. The study, issued In the journal for psychopathology and clinical science, it claims that such watches show a very limited ability to actually communicate what the psychological state of man is. Occasionally, a clock may think that the user is stressed when they really excite something, researchers say.
The report watched nearly 800 students carrying Garmin Vivosmart 4-Smartwatch and measured their self-reported emotional states against the metrics collected by the portable. According to the study, the guards’ self-reports and analyzes were given little to each other. It notes:
We explored the simultaneous overlap between self-report and portable sensor data measuring stress, fatigue and sleep. For most individuals in our sample, we have found that self-report and physiological measures of stress show very weak to no associations. These results raise several questions about differences between data sources and possible measurement problems.
Garmin Advertisements Tight tracking ability for its smart watches on its website. “Stress levels (0–100) are evaluated by the first -analysis engine of FirstBeat, mainly using a combination of HR and HRV data. These data are recorded by the optical heart rate sensor at the back of your device.”
However, Garmin seems to acknowledge that the quality and character of stress can be difficult to measure: “Public speaking and running a staircase flight can both send your heart -race, but the lower reasons are fundamentally different,” its website notices. The company suggests that wearing the clock can more often result in better measurements. “You can improve the quality of the understanding gained by carrying your device as much as possible, especially while you sleep, because that is when your stress levels will usually be lowest,” the site states. “This helps to create a better understanding of the full range of stresses and relaxation you experience.”
In Interview With the guardian, one of the authors of the study, Eiko Fried, said the correlation between the self-reported stress scores that were collected as part of the study and the readings given by the smart watches were “essentially zero.”
“This is not a surprise for us, as the clock measures bodily rhythm and body rhythm does not have as much connection with the emotion you experience – it also goes for sexual excitement or joyous experiences,” he told the exit. “The findings raise important questions about what portable data may or cannot tell us about mental states,” he continued. “Be cautious and don’t live with your SmartWatch – These are consumer devices, not medical devices.”
The topic of the study has a variety of research history. A 2023 Meta-analysis of studies About portable and stress management found that “the impact of usable lightening or reduction of stress” was “not analyzed” and that most studies up to that point “focused on presenting overhangable devices overlap.” Another Study Published by researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2023 found, as well as the recent study of psychology, that intelligent watches often failed to distinguish between excitement and stress. Gizmodo spotted Garmin to comment on the recent study and will update this story if it responds.
While the study claims that Garmin’s portability did not do much to measure stress, researchers found that it appeared to provide decent metrics in other arenas. The report says that the watches measured sleep very well, although it notices that “associations weakened because of fatigue.”
