Notifications sound on iPhone can be distracting, especially at night, and can hinder your sleep.
It’s not uncommon for alerts and notifications to arrive just as you’re trying to fall asleep. Frequent text messages, app alerts, or email notifications can disrupt your sleeping habits. This happens because we often check these notifications out of curiosity instead of ignoring them.
At the same time, most people don’t want to silence their phone completely at night in case of emergencies. Simply switching your iPhone to vibrate or silent mode isn’t always the best solution either.
How Do I Keep My iPhone on Silent at Night?
Does the sound of notifications bother you when you’re about to sleep?
There are several ways to make your notifications silent at night. However, scheduling Do Not Disturb (DND) mode to turn off notifications at a certain time is certainly a feasible option if you just want to silence notifications and calls overnight.
With Do Not Disturb on iOS, you can automatically silence notifications on iPhone at night while still allowing calls from selected contacts who might need you in an emergency.
In addition to DND, iPhone users can use Sleep Focus with Bedtime mode to stop email and text notifications while sleeping. Disabling Wi-Fi/Mobile Data or putting your iPhone on silent are a few other ways to turn off iPhone notifications while sleeping.
Without further ado, let’s see how you can stop your iPhone from lighting up with notifications at night on iOS 18 and iOS 26.
NOTE: The method below uses DND, as it’s the most convenient and automated solution.
How to Silence Notifications at Night on iPhone
Follow these steps to schedule Do Not Disturb mode to turn on and off automatically at a set time in iOS 18 or iOS 26:
- Open the Settings app and go to Focus > Do Not Disturb.
- Scroll down and tap Add Schedule under Set a Schedule.
- Tap the Time tab.
- Set the From time (when you want DND to start) and the To time (when you want it to turn off). For example, 11 PM to 6 AM.
- (Optional) Deselect the days when you don’t want DND automation. By default, it runs every day.
- Tap Done.
To allow important calls during DND:
- Go to the People tab under Notifications.
- Tap Add and choose the contacts you want to allow.
- You can also allow repeated calls and calls from your Favourites.
That’s it! Do Not Disturb will now turn on and off automatically at the set time interval.
To confirm that notifications are silenced, look for the crescent moon icon in the status bar or Lock Screen. This indicates that DND is active.
Note: Notifications delivered silently while you’re asleep will still appear in the Notification Centre instead of the Lock Screen. To see silenced notifications on the Lock Screen, go to Options under Do Not Disturb Focus and enable Show On Lock Screen.
RELATED: How to exclude specific apps from Do Not Disturb on iPhone
How to Silence WhatsApp Notifications at Night on iPhone
If WhatsApp is your main messaging app, receiving notifications late at night can be especially annoying.
Fortunately, you can mute WhatsApp overnight on your iPhone and continue to receive notifications from other apps. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings > Focus.
- Tap the + icon (top-right) to add a new Focus.
- Choose Custom, give your Focus a name such as “WhatsApp”, and tap Next.
- Tap Customise Focus.
- Under Silence Notifications, go to the Apps tab.
- Select Silence Notifications From instead of “Allow Notifications From”.
- Tap the + Add icon, select WhatsApp, and tap Done.
- Tap Done again.
- Important: Tap Add Schedule, select Time, and choose the start and end time (to automatically turn WhatsApp Focus on and off at a set time).
- Select the days you want the schedule to be active, then tap Done.
Now, WhatsApp notifications will be delivered quietly without notification sound or alert tones. The chosen icon will also appear in the status bar when WhatsApp Focus is active.
TIP: You can enable or disable the schedule anytime without deleting the automation.
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