How to block apps at night on iPhone without losing your alarm, calls or maps

By Abel Sánchez, Founder of Plan7 · November 2, 2026 · 7 min read

On iOS 26 and earlier, go to Settings → Screen Time → Downtime → Scheduled, set it from your phone-down time to the morning (for example 22:30 to 07:15), then set a Screen Time passcode and turn on Block at Downtime. On iOS 27, add a night time window in Settings → Screen Time → Screen Time Schedule and leave Social Media and Entertainment out of it. Keep Phone, Clock and Maps in Always Allowed so the night block never gets in the way of something you need.

Choose the hours before you touch Settings

The start of the block is the time the phone should go down, which sits a little before the time you want to be asleep. The end is the part most people get wrong. If the block ends at the moment your alarm rings, the first thing you do in the morning is open the apps that kept you up. End it after you're out of bed and dressed instead.

Say you want to sleep at 23:15 and your alarm is at 06:30. The phone goes down at 22:30, and you're usually ready by 07:15. That gives a block of 22:30 to 07:15: 1.5 hours before midnight plus 7.25 after it, or 8 hours 45 minutes a night. If the morning check is the bigger habit for you, see how to stop checking your phone first thing in the morning.

iOS 27: add a night window to Screen Time Schedule

1. Go to Settings → Screen Time → Time Allowances and check that the categories you scroll at night exist, usually Social Media, Entertainment and Games. Tap Manage Categories to add one.
2. Go back to Screen Time, tap Screen Time Schedule and turn on Schedule.
3. Tap Add Schedule and pick the nights it applies to, for example Sunday to Thursday.
4. Add a time window, rename it Night, and set it to start at your phone-down time and stop in the morning.
5. In that window, select only the categories you want available at night. Leave Social Media and Entertainment out.
6. Lock it in Manage Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings with a passcode.

The menu names come from Apple's iOS 27 guide, which also says these features need iOS 27 on all your Apple devices. Friday and Saturday get a second schedule with later hours (see the example week below).

iOS 26 and earlier: Downtime overnight

1. Go to Settings → Screen Time and turn on App & Website Activity if it's off.
2. Tap Downtime, then Scheduled.
3. Choose Every Day, or Customize Days if your weekend nights run later. Set the start to your phone-down time and the end to the morning. The window can run past midnight.
4. Set a Screen Time passcode, then turn on Block at Downtime.
5. Open Always Allowed and keep only the apps from the table below.

Without step 4, Downtime is a reminder. Apple's guide says that with Block at Downtime off, "you see a reminder that it's downtime, but you can choose to continue using the apps". With it on, blocked apps appear dimmed with an hourglass. You get a reminder 5 minutes before Downtime starts, which is a good moment to plug the phone in.

Downtime allows one window per day on iOS 26, and for most people the night is the window worth spending it on. If you also want apps closed during work hours, blocking apps at certain times covers the options for the daytime.

What to leave open at night

A night block that locks the wrong app gets switched off the first time it's in the way. Go through this list before the first night instead of at 23:40.

Example: a week of night blocks

The same person as above, with an alarm at 06:30 on weekdays and later nights on Friday and Saturday:

Over the week that's 5 × 8.75 + 2 × 9 = 61.75 hours with social apps closed, all of them at night or in the first hour of the morning. On iOS 26, set this with Customize Days in Downtime. On iOS 27, make two schedules, one for each group of nights.

Why night blocks get switched off

• There's no passcode, or you know it. Without a Screen Time passcode, the block is a reminder you dismiss. If you set the passcode yourself, it's four digits between you and the feed. Ask a partner or friend to set it. For the extra minute Screen Time offers, see how to remove One More Minute.
• Sleep Focus is doing the job alone. Sleep Focus filters notifications and calls (Apple), but a tapped app still opens. Use it for quiet and the Screen Time block for the apps.
• An app you need is locked. A ride app on a Friday night or an alarm app you forgot. Fix Always Allowed once rather than turning the whole block off.
• The hours stopped matching your nights. A 22:30 block is wrong on the night you get home from training at 22:15. Two or three wrong nights and the schedule gets turned off for good.

If some of these come up every week, the Downtime troubleshooting guide goes through each switch in order.

When your bedtime changes from week to week

Customize Days handles a pattern that repeats. It can't follow a late class this Tuesday, an early flight on Thursday or a rotating shift. For changing nights, the block has to start from your plan for that day: when the evening ends, the apps close. If you work nights, your night block happens in daylight. The daily routine for night shift workers has full schedules that start from the hour you get home.

A late night also costs the next day. Don't Lose Tuesday is a free 90-second game about what happens to a day when nothing in it is protected.

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• How to stop using your phone in bed: an iPhone setup that holds after the first week
• How to block apps on iPhone at certain times (iOS 26 and iOS 27)
• Features