Qotd

With its diversity of music apps, the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are perfect for owners who like to unwind at night and listen to some music as they fall asleep. Though relaxing, listening while sleepy has its detractors. If you are not careful, you may often find yourself waking up in the middle of the night with music blaring in your ears and almost dead battery. You can avoid this ear strain and battery drain by using the useful timer feature in iOS to turn off your tunes shortly after you fall asleep.

This sleep timer is available on all iOS devices and is built into the Clock app, not the Music app as you would expect. The Clock app has a “When Timer Ends” option that allows you to perform an operation, such as sound an alert, when the timer when the timer has expired. In this case, we are going to use the command “Stop Playing” to shut off the music. In iOS 8, this feature not only works with Apple Music, Beats 1 and other music being played by iOS’ built-in music app. It also works for Spotify, Rdio and many other third-party music apps.

Using the steps below, you can set your music to shut off after a pre-determined amount of time. I usually choose 30 minutes, giving me plenty of time to listen and fall asleep without draining my battery with unattended, overnight listening.

1. Start playing the radio station or playlist that you want to listen to while you are falling asleep.
2. Open the Clock app.
3. Select the “Timer” tab.
4. Create a new timer by choosing the amount of time you want your music to play.
5. Tap the “When Timer Ends” option.
6. Scroll to the bottom and select “Stop Playing.”
7. Tap “Set” to confirm the timer settings and then “Start” to begin the timer.
8. Lay down, close your eyes and enjoy your music.

With the timer running in the background, you can fall asleep with the assurance that your music will shut off shortly after your shut eye begins.