Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, TUAW Tips, iPhone, iPod touch
TUAW Tip: Going to sleep with the iPhone
Since I often listen to music while falling asleep (especially on trips -- maybe it makes me feel more at home), I was happy to see this tip, sent to us by reader Mark S. He points out that there is a sleep timer on the iPhone, but it's not in the iPod app. It's hidden over in the Clock app -- once you've got your music playing, you can then exit out and go over to the Timer app in there, and under the "when timer ends" option (where you usually choose a ringtone), you can choose the "Sleep iPod" choice.Then, when your timer stops (and you're off into dreamland), it'll stop the iPod for you. Very nice. Of course, there's still the issue of headphones, if you're wearing them, but I usually am able to push those off in a fit of dreamless sleep (or, of course, you could just use the external speaker on the iPhone).
All of the sleep tunes, much less worry. This tip's been going around for a while, but it's the first I'd heard of it. Thanks, Mark!
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Darrin Mossor said 5:47PM on 3-16-2009
That's a great tip for going to sleep.
How about the flipside? It would be fantastic to have the option of using the Alarm to wake in the morning to music as opposed to the alarm sounds. Maybe pick out a playlist, have it gradually get louder over a set period.
Anyone know a way to accomplish that or if that might be a future Feature?
Reply
Ryan said 7:55PM on 3-16-2009
Sort of. I have a custom ringtone that's bit of a favorite song and I set the alarm sound to that custom ringtone. The fade-in could be setup when setting up the ringtone, whether you do the Garageband method of creating custom ringtones or use only iTunes.
Rob E. said 4:43PM on 3-19-2009
That is something I can do on my old iPod, but not on my Touch. I was pretty disappointed when I realized that I had lost that functionality by upgrading.
My understanding is that the 3.0 software may give access to some areas that were previously off-limits, like the iTunes library, so if Apple doesn't address this directly, it's possible that a 3rd party will.
Ozbone said 5:57PM on 3-16-2009
Agreed, but its only "semi-handy" to me. Ideally you'd be able to slip off into Slumberland whilst using the clock and alarm from, say, Nightstand.
Reply
LD said 6:32PM on 3-16-2009
In theory could I set it to sleep then open iHeartRadio and listen to a station there? I prefer this as I can get my local stations on what my body thinks is the proper time (I often change time zones and travel on 100+ flights a year).
I'll be trying it tonight in the hotel, but would be nice if anyone knows.
Reply
Andrew said 6:33PM on 3-16-2009
One other neat thing about the sleep iPod function - it doesn't only sleep the iPod. If I start the sleep iPod timer, go into Pandora or Slacker, it will mute the audio from them when the countdown reaches zero.
Reply
Greenie said 6:44PM on 3-16-2009
Sort of on the topic since it deals with iPhone and sleep.
Anyone know if there is an app that will turn off the push emails each night at a certain time? I like getting my email instantly during the day, but after ten I don't want to get them anymore. Yet, I still have to have my phone nearby and turned up in case of an emergency with the kids.
Any thoughts?
Reply
Jason said 7:37PM on 3-16-2009
That's a good point as well... I'd love that functionality. I need to keep the phone turned up high at night for emergencies, but would love to be able to automate turning off (or down) the email/sms sounds after a certain hour, rather than have to go into the settings before bed every night.
Rob E. said 4:48PM on 3-19-2009
I would love to set a timer on my audible alarms. I like them during the day, but they distract me when I'm trying to sleep and drive my wife crazy. Really what I would love to see is the ability to have an "ap" that is really just a toggle switch for a specific setting. I leave my sounds off because I have to go through to many steps to turn the sounds on and off. Likewise, I try to turn Wifi off when I'm not using it to conserve battery life, but that can be a pain as well. Instead of having the Settings Ap on my Dashboard, I'd love to have a little toggle switch that, with a simple tap, turns Wifi on or off. Same with audible alerts.
Jason said 7:19PM on 3-16-2009
This brings up a good point. I'm in a position now of being "on-call" at work, and need to find a good alarm clock/speakerphone dock for the iPhone. I want something I can dock the iPhone in to charge, and that has controls on it to answer the phone when it rings and play it through the speakers. To me, this seems like a no-brainer, but all I've found are alarm clocks that turn off the phone function when docked.
I don't think there's a solution that acts like a speakerphone extension and a clock.
Reply
John said 7:37PM on 3-16-2009
this is soooo old, im surprised no one has noticed it before
Aelver said 7:46PM on 3-16-2009
Mark, congrats on reading April '09 Mac|Life and plagiarizing their article from pg 37.
Reply
JKT said 12:10PM on 3-17-2009
Pointing out the location of a single function that someone else (Apple) wrote is not "plagiarism". Plagiarism is copying a significant piece of original work. So maybe it's time to hop off your high horse there.
Alex said 7:56PM on 3-16-2009
my Samsung from a few years had a great feature called "Auto-Power On" so you could use it as an alarm clock. Set the alarm, turn the phone off, and it would power on in the morning and the alarm would go off. Pretty cool and something Apple should have been on years ago even with an iPod.
Maybe in 3.1???
Reply
iBearTouch said 7:59PM on 3-16-2009
I use skullcandy full metal jacket in-ear headphones, and set the timer at about 3 hrs. Some nights I have the alarm to wake up set as well...LOL. Soon Apple will be controlling our sleep patterns in iPhone 5.0 software, complete with hypnotic suggestions that you can purchase in the App store to help you self actualize!
Reply
St.McDuck said 8:41PM on 3-16-2009
My old 2nd gen iPod has a "wake to music" option. It really baffles me that my shiny new iPod Touch doesn't.
Maybe if more people let Apple know they want the option to wake up to music, they'll finally do something about it:
www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html
Reply
(e) said 8:52PM on 3-16-2009
I have used this trick ever since I got my iPhone but I use an under pillow speaker. I have one that I bought at Radio Shack a long time ago and I take it with me wherever I go.
I always fall asleep to an audio book and my wife can't hear a thing.
(e)
Reply
MacKleriker said 3:27AM on 3-17-2009
Hello!
This is the way I am going to sleep:
I have written an app to act as a night clock, playing music to fall asleep, fade that music out and last but not least an alarm clock management (similar to the builtin alarm clock). Of course the alarm clock slowly fades in the alarm music...
Sadly I cannot push my app to the AppStore because with the SDK I have no access to the iPod library.
At the moment the Songs for the sleep timer (Jack Johnson) and the alarm clock (from soft to hard) are integrated in the app...
If Apple allows to access the iPod, I'm going to release it...
cYa
Reply
Taylor said 4:15AM on 3-17-2009
Jailbreak and distribute through Cydia's app store.
MacKleriker said 6:45AM on 3-17-2009
Yes, I thought of that too, but there is no easy way to access the iPod/iTunes Library except for parsing the DB....
I hope Apple is going to allow playing songs etc. with OS 3.0...
cYa