How to set a bedtime reminder on your Mac

The quickest way to get a bedtime reminder on a Mac is a reminder in the Reminders app that repeats every day at the time you want to start winding down. If you want something firmer, Screen Time's Downtime can block most apps from a set time each night. A Sleep Focus on a schedule quiets your notifications, and a Night Shift schedule gives you a visual cue as the screen warms up.

Each of these has a catch, which is why so many bedtime reminders end up ignored by the second week. Below are the steps for each one, what it is good and bad at, and what makes a bedtime reminder one you actually act on.

First, choose the time

A reminder at bedtime itself is too late. By the time it goes off you are halfway through an episode or an email, and getting from the desk to asleep takes longer than you think. Set two times instead.

• Bedtime: when you want to be in bed with the lights off. Work back from when you need to get up. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get at least seven hours a night, so count back at least that far, plus a little time to fall asleep.
• Wind down: about an hour before bedtime. This is the reminder that matters most, because it comes while stopping is still easy. A wind-down routine for screen workers has ideas for filling that hour.

Keeping the same times every night, weekends included, makes the reminder easier to obey. There is more on that in why a consistent bedtime matters.

Option 1: a repeating reminder in Reminders

This is the simplest, and if you use Reminders on your iPhone too, it syncs through iCloud.

1. Open Reminders and pick a list.
2. Add a new reminder (the plus button, or Command-N) and give it a specific name, like "Close the laptop and start winding down".
3. Click the "i" that appears beside the reminder to show its details, switch on a date and a time, set the time to your wind-down time, and set Repeat to Daily.

The exact layout of the details moves around a little between versions of macOS, but the date, time and repeat options are all there.

Good at: being quick to set up. Weak at: standing out. It arrives as a notification banner that looks like every work notification you have dismissed that day, it comes whether or not you are at the Mac, and if Reminders is also on your phone, it may turn up there at the same moment. A Calendar event with an alert, or a repeating alarm in the Clock app, works in much the same way.

Option 2: Screen Time Downtime

Downtime is the firm option. From a set time each night, only the apps you allow keep working.

1. Open System Settings > Screen Time. If it asks, turn on App & Website Activity first.
2. Click Downtime and turn on the schedule. Choose every day or custom days, and set when it starts and ends.
3. Back in Screen Time, click Always Allowed and choose the apps that should still work during Downtime.

Screen Time usually warns you a few minutes before Downtime begins, and once it starts, other apps are blocked until the schedule ends.

Good at: drawing a clear line. Weak at: nuance. Unless you set a Screen Time passcode, getting past the limit is a click away, and on tired evenings it is easy to click without reading. With a passcode it becomes strict enough that some people turn it off for good the first time it gets in the way of something that mattered. It also blocks apps rather than nudging you, at the same time every night, whether you were already winding down or in the middle of something important.

Option 3: a Sleep Focus on a schedule

A Focus silences notifications, so a Sleep Focus that switches on at your wind-down time takes away a lot of the reasons to stay at the screen.

1. Open System Settings > Focus and click Sleep. If it isn't in the list, click Add Focus and choose Sleep.
2. Under Set a Schedule, click Add Schedule, choose a time-based schedule, and set it to start at your wind-down time and end when you get up.
3. Choose the people and apps that can still reach you.

If you set a sleep schedule in Health on iPhone and keep "Share across devices" turned on in Focus settings, the Sleep Focus that your phone turns on can carry over to the Mac as well.

Good at: making the evening quieter. Weak at: reminding you of anything. When a Focus turns on there is very little to see, so it is easy not to notice at all, and nothing about it gets you away from the desk.

Option 4: a Night Shift schedule as a cue

Night Shift warms the colors on the screen after dark, and you can use the change itself as a signal.

1. Open System Settings > Displays and click the Night Shift button.
2. Set Schedule to Custom and make it start at your wind-down time.
3. Move the Color Temperature slider toward the warmer end if you want the change to be obvious.

Good at: being gentle and always there. Weak at: being noticed after the first week, since your eyes adjust to a warmer screen quickly. Whether Night Shift itself helps you sleep is not clear, as screens before bed explains, but as a cue it does no harm.

Why most bedtime reminders get ignored

They share one problem: they fire at a fixed time, whatever you are doing. If you are already in bed, the reminder is noise. If you are on a late call, it interrupts. If you are deep in something, it looks like every other banner, and you dismiss it without reading. After a week of that, you stop seeing it.

The reminders people keep acting on tend to have a few things in common. They come only when they apply, which for bedtime means only when you are still at the computer. They are easy to put off once without being switched off for good. And they feel more like a friend tapping you on the shoulder than a system alert, so you don't start to resent them.

How Notchpals does it

Notchpals was built around that idea. Its Sleep area has four characters, and the one in your crew looks after your evenings.

You set your bedtime once, during setup or later in Settings (it starts out at 11 PM). From then on, three moments cover the evening:

• Wind down arrives during the last hour before your bedtime, as the first nudge to start wrapping up.
• Bedtime turns up once your bedtime has passed, and only if you haven't left the Mac.
• Very late checks on anyone still up and using the Mac between 1 and 4:30 AM.

Here is Boo, the shy ghost, at bedtime.

BooI'll keep watch while you sleep... promise. So, um, close the laptop?

Done gets you a thank-you. Later sends Boo away for about 20 minutes, after which it checks back once if you are still there. If you have already walked away, it doesn't come at all: two minutes without the keyboard or mouse and Notchpals counts you as away. The late call mentioned above is covered as well, since Boo won't appear while your microphone or camera is live, or while a full screen app has the display with the notch.

One thing to know if you also use a Sleep Focus: Notchpals does not read Focus modes, so a Focus will not hush your crew. For a bedtime reminder, that is usually what you want.

Whichever tools you use, the same rules hold. Aim the reminder at the wind down rather than the bedtime itself, keep the time steady, and choose a reminder that turns up only when it has something to say. A Night Shift schedule and a Sleep Focus make a good quiet backdrop. Something that notices you are still at the desk does the nudging.