Everyone has their own night time wind-down rituals before hitting the bed. For some, that means queuing up an audiobook, podcast or favorite TV show to help lull them to sleep. Me? I put on my favorite history podcast. The trouble is, I don't want the podcast playing into the early hours after I've already nodded off. That's where a sleep timer comes in.
Many apps and services have a sleep timer built in. So do many of the best televisions. Start a movie or show, set the timer and when the countdown ends, playback stops and the screen powers down. But did you know the same feature exists on your iPhone?
If you like falling asleep to music, videos or white noise, you don't need a separate app to stop them automatically. Your iPhone has a built-in -- somewhat hidden -- sleep timer baked in since iOS 7. Here's how you can track it down and set it up.
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How to use the sleep timer on your iPhone
The reason so many people overlook the native sleep timer is because it's sort of tucked away with next to no mention anywhere. And, technically, it's not called a sleep timer. It's buried in the Clock app under — you guessed it — Timer. It makes perfect sense to put it there. After all, it's just a timer. But rather than playing a sound after the timer has finished, it stops anything that's playing.
So why use this over one of the many third-party apps? Not only will it let you delete an unneeded app on your iPhone, it also, unlike third-party sleep timers, doesn't need the Clock app to be left open with the screen on for the timer to actually do its job.
To set a sleep timer:
- Open the Clock app.
- Tap Timer in the bottom right corner.
- Set the timer length that you want.
- Tap When Timer Ends.
- Scroll to the bottom and select Stop Playing.
- Tap Set in the upper right corner.
- Click Start to start the timer.
Whether you're watching a movie, YouTube videos, streaming music in Spotify or listening to a podcast, the Stop Playing function of the timer will stop any media that's currently playing. It will also lock your device so your screen doesn't stay on if you've been watching a video, which is helpful to save your battery if your device isn't being charged.
Your preference to stop playing media when the timer finishes will be remembered, so if you want to quickly set a sleep timer in the future, swipe up from the bottom of the screen, force touch on the clock icon and select one of the preset times. This also means that you'll need to go back into the Clock app and select a ringtone if you ever want an audible timer in the future.