March 14, 2025

Plus, we looked at the sleep of Garmin users in the top 1% of runners or cyclists. 

We’ve got good news and not-so-good news. The good? Garmin users are sleeping better. The not-so-good news is that a lot of us have room for improvement — especially those of us who don’t consider ourselves elite athletes.

Ever wondered how well you sleep o­­­­­­­­­­r how you compare to your peers? In the latest Garmin data report, you can see how well Garmin users — and Garmin elite athletes — are really sleeping.

Here are the highlights:

• The average sleep score of all Garmin users improved in 2024 from 70 to 72.
• Elite athletes sleep better than the rest of us, with an average sleep score of 74.
• Three out of four Garmin users have fair or good sleep scores, while some are sleeping even better.
• More time asleep doesn’t necessarily correlate with quality sleep.
• Users in Iceland and Finland are some of the world’s best sleepers, both with an average sleep score of 77.

Let’s start with just how well the most active Garmin users sleep.

How well do the top athletes sleep? 

Maybe you get good quality sleep compared to all Garmin users, but what about compared to top athletes? We looked at the top 1% of Garmin users in terms of weekly miles ran and cycled and compared them to, well, everyone else. We defined that 1% as users who consistently ran more than 95 miles a week and those who cycled more than 210 miles per week in the last 12 months.

Those top athletes tend to get better sleep than the rest of us, with an average sleep score of 74 compared to the average of 72 for the general population¹. Plus, more athletes had an excellent sleep score compared to everyone else. Elite athletes also tend to sleep better than everyone else — even when they sleep poorly.

Hannah Shell, a professional off-road cyclist, told Garmin the advanced sleep tracking on her Forerunner® 965 is key for her training and recovery. She uses her morning report feature to see her sleep score, HRV and resting heart rate² when she wakes up. That helps her know how to prepare for her training day. This also comes into play over time. 

“I like being able to look at whether I’m meeting my sleep needs on a weekly basis over the last year and identify which parts of the year are more demanding,” Shell said. “This view helps me better balance my schedule and planning for the next season — if I overcommitted myself one year it will show up in the sleep data.” 

Average sleep score 

Sometimes getting enough sleep is easier said than done. And even if you get enough sleep, it may not have been top-tier shuteye. 

Garmin advanced sleep tracking considers your heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and body movement data when examining the timing of your sleep and any time you spent awake. It also estimates how long you spent in the light, deep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stages. 

All that information (essentially, how well and how long you slept) contributes to your Garmin sleep score, powered by Firstbeat Analytics™. From Feb. 1, 2024, to Jan. 31, 2025, Garmin users had an average sleep score of 72. That’s up from 70 from Feb. 1, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2024. 

We don’t know what you’re doing differently to improve your sleep, but maybe Garmin sleep coach has something to do with it.

Skye Moench, a professional triathlete with a newborn, said Garmin sleep and nap tracking are some of her favorite features. She said the fact that it uploads to the Garmin Connect™ app helps her understand just how much sleep she gets daily — especially as she still tries to squeeze in 8-9 (or more) hours on a newborn’s schedule. 

“When I am getting enough sleep,” Moench said, “I feel so much better and am able to get in some quality training, which helps me feel my best now and will help me perform my best later down the road when I get back to racing.” 

Average sleep quality 

Your sleep score ranges from 0-100 based on this ranking: excellent (90-100), good (80-89), fair (60-79) and poor (0-60).

Most of us aren’t getting excellent sleep. Only 7% of users averaged an excellent score, while 31% had a good average, 43% were fair and 19% were in the poor category. If you find yourself averaging a sleep score below 60, it’s likely time to start trying to improve your sleep.

Sleep score and time asleep 

You’ve heard that 8 hours is the ideal amount of sleep, and the data seems to support that conventional wisdom. Your sleep score correlates with how much sleep you get. The more you sleep, the better your odds of achieving a higher sleep score — to a point.

Users who sleep between 8 to 8.5 hours had the highest average sleep score at 78. Those who sleep just four hours on average have average sleep scores of 35. Yikes.

And folks who…