New data released by Garmin reveals the country where people get the best sleep, based on data gathered by the company's sports watches, and there are some interesting findings.
Garmin watches can monitor your heart rate and movement overnight, detecting how long you spend in each sleep stage (light. REM, and deep), how often you wake, and how restless you are. In the morning you'll receive a Sleep Score, which is marked out of 100 and gives you an overall idea of how well you slept. The higher your sore, the better your quality and quantity of rest and (hopefully) the more refreshed you should feel.
March 15 is World Sleep Day. and to mark the occasion, the company has released some interesting findings based on this data. For instance, during 2023, Garmin wearers in the UK and Ireland significantly improved their sleeping habits. In the UK, the average Garmin user's Sleep Score increased from 69.29 to 71.43, and in Ireland the typical score increased from 69.39 to 71.34. Sleepers in the USA are well down the rankings, with a typical sleep score of just 69.3.
Sleep like the Dutch
However, for the best night's sleep, you should look to continental Europe, and specifically the Netherlands, where the average Garmin user's Sleep Score is an impressive 72.59. This is closely followed by Finland with an average score of 72.53, and Hungary is a distant third at 71.88.
This tallies with a report shared in The Economist (paywall) last year, which analyzed data from the National University of Singapore and smart ring company Oura Health. This paper also found that people in northern European countries like the Netherlands and Finland tend to sleep best, while those in Asian countries tend to get less good quality rest, going to bed later than their European counterparts but getting up at the same time.
Last year, Garmin introduced Sleep Coaching, which gives you custom advice on how to improve your sleep hygiene, and well as automatic nap detection, which records periods of sleep during the day and factors this into your nightly recommended sleep requirement.
It also added a couple of sleep-related badges, including one for tracking sleep stats for 30 days running, and a particularly difficult one called Mythical Sleep, which is awarded if you achieve a perfect sleep score of 100.
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