How to use Night Shift on your iPhone or iPad
- mar
- 21
How do you make sure staring at a screen late into the night doesn't destroy your sleep patterns? Night Shift can help!
Updated March, 2017: Added information about iOS 10.3.
Cooler blue light typically given off by the displays on our iPhones and iPads interferes with the natural processes that help us fall and stay asleep. To reduce that interference, Apple has built in Night Shift. It lets you manually or automatically move the display towards the warmer, yellower part of the color spectrum at night. And that can help you get to sleep — and stay asleep — better.
Read Night Shift explained: How the color of your screen can help you sleep better
Note: Night Shift is only available on iPhone 5s and iPad Air 2 or later.
- How to automatically set Night Shift from sunset to sunrise
- How to automatically set Night Shift on a custom schedule
- How to adjust the color temperature for Night Shift
- How to manually set Night Shift at any time
- How to turn off Night Shift
- How to quickly toggle Night Shift from Control Center
How to automatically set Night Shift from sunset to sunrise
If you like the idea of Night Shift and want it to just work from dusk to dawn, you can flip a few simple switches in settings and make it so.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Night Shift.
Switch Scheduled to on.
- Tap From/To — if it doesn't already say Sunset/Sunrise. (If it does say Sunset/Sunrise, you're done!)
Tap Sunset to Sunrise.
Sunrise and Sunset times are pulled from your location, the same way it is in the Weather app. If you have any problems with the timing, double check your location settings.
How to automatically set Night Shift on a custom schedule
If sunrise and sunset feel too early and too late in the day for you, you can also pick any other static times you like.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Night Shift.
Switch Scheduled to on.
- Tap From/To.
- Tap Custom Schedule.
- Tap Turn On At.
- "Spin" the selector vertically to choose your on time. You can spin hours, minutes, and AM/PM separately.
- Tap Turn Off At.
"Spin" the selector vertically to choose your off time. You can spin hours, minutes, and AM/PM separately.
There's no "done" button. Whatever you set last will be the time Night Shift uses. If you later decide the timing still isn't right, and you want to tweak it, simply repeat the steps and choose a different time.
How to manually set Night Shift at any time
If you don't want to go all-in on a schedule, you can also simply choose to manually enable Night Shift at any time.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Night Shift.
Tap Manually Enable Until Tomorrow.
Night shift will then turn on and stay on until the next day. If you want to use it again, you'll have to manually enable it again or set up a schedule.
How to adjust the color temperature for Night Shift
Seeing your screen pushed from the cooler blues you're used to towards the warmer yellows can be uncomfortable at first. The human brain is amazing at adapting, so you should get used to the default quickly. If for some reason, though, you find it too warm — or not warm enough — you can tweak the temperature to your liking.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Night Shift.
Slide the Color Temperature left for Less Warm (bluer) and right for More Warm (yellower) spectrum.
Note: If Night Shift isn't on while you're making the adjustments, the screen will temporarily simulate it so you can get a real sense of what your choice will look like.
How to turn off Night Shift
If you decide Night Shift isn't for you, at least for now, you can disable it completely.
- Launch Settings from your Home screen.
- Tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Night Shift.
- Switch Scheduled off.
Switch Manually Enable Until Tomorrow off.
Night Shift will stay off until you flip one of those switches back on.
How to turn on Night Shift from Control Center
Night Shift gradually changes the color temperature of your display towards the warmer (yellow) spectrum and away from the cooler (bluer) spectrum in an effort to reduce adverse affects on your sleep hygiene. (Simpler version: Blue light at night is bad.) While it can be set to change automatically, you can also turn it on or off at any time.
- Swipe up from the bottom bezel onto the screen to bring up Control Center.
Tap the Night Shift button in the middle.
Any Night Shift questions?
If you're having any trouble with Night Shift, or have any additional questions, drop them in the comments below.
