Not All Sleep Scores Are Created Equal

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Sleep scores may be one of the most-checked metrics in wearable health tracking, but the companies behind them haven't agreed on a shared language. A Garmin wearer with a 75 is in "Fair" territory. An Oura wearer with a 75 is doing "Good." An Apple Watch user with a 75 might see "OK" or "High" depending on which software version they're running. Where are these numbers coming from, and what are they actually telling you? Each platform uses different scales, labels, and underlying signals to arrive at that single morning number. Here's a breakdown of how the most popular wearables calculate your "sleep score," and what that score means for you. Oura Ring 4 $349.00 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $349.00 at Amazon What your "sleep score" actually means For all the scoring systems below, know that it's impossible for a sleep score to be truly "accurate. " Your device tracks how long you seemed to be asleep, and makes guesses as to how much of that time was spent in light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. Then, it distills it into a single composite score, which might have more to do with branding decisions than clinical science. So while the data that is going into your score (like your heart rate) might be accurate, it's important to understand that the score itself is a made up number. Sleep tracking, at its best, functions less like a medical test that you pass or fail, and more as a way to see patterns over time. How an Oura Ring…