Learn how to automatically stop playing music, video, or other media on your iPhone or iPad when a timer runs out, like before you usually fall asleep.
White noise and calming music help me fall asleep, but I don’t want the audio playing for longer than 20-30 minutes.
Setting a sleep timer to automatically stop playing media before you fall asleep is super handy, so let’s show you how to do that.
Set a sleep timer for music, videos, and movies
You can set a sleep timer to automatically stop playing media at a designated time in Apple’s Clock app by following the instructions below.
- Open the Clock app on your iPhone or iPad and go to the Timers tab.
- Tap Sound (formerly When Timer Ends). This is where you’d normally select the timer sound.
- Scroll to the bottom and select Stop Playing. Then tap Set in the top-right corner.
- Set your timer in hours, minutes, and seconds, and tap the Start icon to run it.
If you’re listening to music or watching a movie, playback will stop automatically when the timer is up.
To create a timer with a ringtone instead, be sure to turn off the “Stop Playing” action and choose a timer sound; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve set a cooking timer that never rang because I left it on Stop Playing.
Sleep-based audio control with AirPods
If you wear your AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro 2 or later in bed, they can automatically pause audio when you fall asleep. Sleep-based audio control on AirPods is a new capability that works independently of the timer function in the Clock app.
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