How to Use Sleep Mode on iPhone and Apple Watch - MacRumors
Skip to Content

How to Use Sleep Mode on iPhone and Apple Watch

by

In iOS 14 and watchOS 7, Apple introduced a new Sleep Tracking feature that lets you monitor how much sleep you're getting each night and improve your sleep habits with the help of bedtime reminders and a winding down process.

iOS 14 watchOS 7 Sleep Tracking Feature 1
In the Health app on ‌iPhone‌ or using an ‌Apple Watch‌, you can set up a Sleep Schedule with the amount of sleep you want to get each night and your standard sleep and wake up goals.

You can also enable something called Sleep Mode, which automatically simplifies your iPhone's Lock screen at your scheduled Wind Down time. If you have an Apple Watch with Sleep Mode active, it replaces your normal watch face and any complications with a simplified time display.

Sleep Mode also turns on Do Not Disturb to silence notifications and prevent your phone from ringing (although you can give certain callers permission to break through Do Not Disturb in Settings). If you've already set a Sleep Schedule and set a Wind Down time, you can enable Sleep Mode by following these steps.

  1. Launch Apple's Health app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap the Browse tab in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
  3. Scroll down and select Sleep.
    sleep

  4. Under "Your Schedule," tap Full Schedule & Options.
  5. Under "Additional Details," tap Options.
    4howtousesleepmodeios

  6. Under "Sleep Mode," toggle the switch next to Turn On Automatically to the green ON position.
    sleep

How to Manually Control Sleep Mode on iPhone

Once enabled, Sleep Mode will turn on and off automatically to match your Sleep Schedule, but it can also be toggled on or off manually in your iPhone's Control Center, like so.

sleep
If Sleep Mode is active on your iPhone, you can tap Dismiss to deactivate it and access your Lock screen normally.

sleep

How to Manually Control Sleep Mode on Apple Watch

Like on iPhone, you can toggle Sleep Mode on and off on Apple Watch by bringing up the Control Center from the bottom of the screen.

sleep
If Sleep Mode is active on your Apple Watch, turn the Digital Crown until your normal watch face appears on the screen.

sleep
For more details on the sleep features in iOS 14 and watchOS 7, check out our dedicated guide.

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
ios 26 4 yellow

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for iOS 26.4

Wednesday March 18, 2026 11:56 am PDT by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update. Apple Music - Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...
Apple Logo Sketch Feature

Apple Has Now Unveiled Eight New Products This Month

Tuesday March 17, 2026 9:25 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping eight new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and now the AirPods Max 2 this week. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's...