Regular sleep is crucial for health. While the CDC recommends adults get at least seven hours of sleep a night, many adults in the U.S. are chronically sleep-deprived.
Sleep is essential for multiple reasons.
- Cognitive function: Sleeping is crucial for the brain to process information from the previous day and form new neural pathways. Getting adequate amounts of sleep aids with learning, decision-making and mood regulation.
- Physical health: Getting enough sleep helps improve physical health, including aiding in blood and heart vessel repair, decreasing high blood pressure and obesity risk, helping regulate appetite and boosting the immune system.
- Safety: People who do not receive an adequate amount of sleep may experience microsleep, in which they experience brief periods of sleep during an awake state. Microsleep can pose safety issues, especially when people experience it while driving. Driving while tired is almost as risky as driving under the influence.
Sleep deprivation occurs when someone doesn’t get enough sleep, has an inconsistent sleep schedule or experiences disrupted sleep. Symptoms of sleep deprivation include feeling tired during the day and problems with learning, memory or controlling your emotions.
Apple’s Sleep Focus mode for iPhone helps iPhone users maintain a regular sleep schedule and eliminate distracting notifications when it’s time to relax for the evening. This article will explain what iPhone Sleep Focus is before describing how to set it up and use its various features.
What Is iPhone Sleep Mode?
Apple’s sleep mode, called Sleep Focus, allows you to set a sleep schedule free from iPhone notification distractions. Sleep Focus enables iPhone users to turn off notifications when they want to relax and signal to others that they are unavailable. You can schedule your iPhone sleep mode to activate at the bedtime you set via the health app.
Sleep focus also allows you to access the last app you had opened by opening the sleep focus screen, tapping the dismiss button and swiping up for face ID or pressing the home button. Depending on the type of iPhone you have, you can either press the side or sleep/wake button to see the Sleep Focus screen again.
Benefits of Using Sleep Mode
Setting an iPhone sleep schedule can come with many benefits. Whenever someone receives a notification on their iPhone, they receive a rush of dopamine, a brain chemical associated with reward and pleasure. Social media, email and other smartphone apps can cause an endless dopamine loop, causing people to feel like they need to check their phones constantly. Some researchers even say social media is addictive.
Sleep mode disrupts the chain of endless notifications by allowing iPhone users to automatically turn them off for a set period. Sleep Focus will enable you to rest peacefully by allowing emergency notifications from family and friends.
Sleep focus puts you in control of the following.
- Receiving calls: Focus allows you to select the contacts you would like to receive calls from. You can choose to accept all calls, calls from all contacts, calls from favorites in your contacts or no calls at all while you have Sleep Focus activated.
- From whom to receive notifications: You can select notifications from trusted contacts to come through when you activate Sleep Focus on your iPhone. You can also ensure you receive any essential notifications from apps while Sleep Focus is running.
- Who knows you have notifications silenced: iPhones allow you to choose whether to share your device’s focus status. By turning “Focus Status” on, you can decide whether you display your device’s “do not disturb” status to people who message you. When a user turns on Focus Sharing, people who contact them can only see they have the feature turned on, not which focus they’re using.
Either choose to turn off notifications only when you’re planning on sleeping or extend your Sleep Focus time by 15 minutes to three hours with the wind-down feature. You can select wind-down shortcuts to appear on the wind-down lock screen. Shortcuts include calming activities like music, spoken-word stories, journaling or meditation. Then, set an alarm sound, vibration or snooze option to ensure you receive notifications when you wake up in the morning. You can also choose to have no alarm.
Many people also use Sleep Focus to maintain a regular sleep schedule, which can help you get better sleep and feel more rested when you wake up. While experts suggest keeping a consistent daily sleep schedule is best for health, Sleep Focus also allows you to set multiple schedules for weekdays and weekends.
How to Set up Sleep Mode
Enabling Sleep Focus on the iPhone is a breeze. Apple’s user interface and instructions are straightforward enough that you can follow along with the on-screen instructions. When setting up your first sleep schedule, Apple suggests three steps:
- Tap the “Browse” tab at the bottom right and then “Sleep.”
- Click “Get Started,” located below “Set up Sleep.”
- Follow the app’s instructions.
While the process may look slightly different depending on your iPhone’s model, you typically can set up Sleep Focus by taking the following steps:
- Open the Health app.
- Press the “Browse” tab at the bottom right of the screen.
- Scroll to select “Sleep,” the menu item with a bed icon next to it.
- Select the “Full Schedule & Options” selection under the “Your Schedule” tab.
- Choose “Options” from the “Additional Details” tab.
- Toggle the “Turn on Automatically” switch for Sleep Mode.
How to Adjust or Turn off Sleep Mode
When your sleep schedule changes, you may want to adjust or turn off the iPhone sleep mode. You can modify or add schedules by selecting particular days for specific alarms and adjusting your wake and sleep schedule. You can also delete or permanently turn off schedules and alarms. To either adjust or delete a sleep schedule, select “Sleep,” “Your Schedule” and “Full Schedule & Options.” From there, you can manage your iPhone sleep mode settings.
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Sleep Focus is one of many benefits that come with owning an iPhone. If you’re looking to purchase a quality iPhone on a budget, consider buying a thoroughly inspected used device with Gazelle. All our refurbished devices come with a 30-day warranty, so you can rest assured you’re getting a reliable purchase while making a more eco-friendly and economical choice.
Contact us today to learn more about our used device buying and selling options. You can also discover more Apple tips and tricks on our blog.