How to set up and use the Bedtime feature in iOS 10

Bedtime is a clever but simple new feature in iOS 10 that helps you to achieve more consistent sleeping habits. Here’s how to get it set up.

Open the Clock app, or open Timer by hitting the stopwatch icon on the bottom row of the Control Centre, then tap Bedtime in the centre of the bottom row. Tap Get Started.

Apple – and medical science in general, I believe – is keen for you to get up at the same time every day, and at this point it isn’t possible to use the Bedtime feature with multiple different wakeup times throughout the week. What you can do, however, is set up Bedtime for your most common wakeup time, then leave your normal alarm set up to cover for the remaining days.

Read next: Best iPhone sleep apps and alarm clock apps

So we’ve chosen 6.30 as the wakeup time, and on the next screen we’ll tell iOS not to apply this on Mondays, Wednesdays and the weekend (look, it’s a complicated week when you’ve got two kids going to nursery part-time). Note that this screen works by a process of deselection – every day is selected by default.

On the next screen you choose how long you’d like to sleep for – as the app points out, the recommendation is between 7 and 8. You can only choose whole numbers of hours at this point.

Select when you’d like your bedtime call. For some of us, who like to have a little read before nodding off, it’s best to err on the generous side here. Thirty minutes ought to do it.

Finally, pick a sound/song to be woken by. You don’t get as many options as you do in the older Alarm app and (again, at this point) you can’t import your own music. Birdsong is nice, as you’d expect.

And, other than a brief explanation of how Bedtime will gather data on your sleeping habits, that’s it. Hit Save and the Bedtime feature is set up and ready to go. Sleep well!