As someone who has had trouble sleeping my whole life, I will do anything to catch more Z’s. I read it all professional tips and I tried many products, however one method has really helped me get better quality sleep It doesn’t require much time, effort or money because it was on my iPhone.
For over five years, I’ve been able to sleep better thanks to a hidden feature on my iPhone. This is what I found.
The hidden iPhone feature that’s giving me sleep
You can use an iPhone Background Sound feature to play ambient sounds when you want to relax or focus. These include ocean (my favorite), rain, stream, night, fire, balanced sound, bright sound and dark sound. It’s basically built-in white noise machine.
You can allow Background Sounds to play continuously, even when other media is playing, and adjust the volume accordingly. You can also set up a feature that allows you to easily turn it off by locking your iPhone. I’ve never tried this, though, as I only turn on Background Sounds at night to go to sleep.
Background Sounds icon with three musical notes in the lower right.
How to turn on Background Sounds
To add Background Sounds to your iPhone’s Control Center for easy access, make sure you have iOS 15 or later. You can also add it to iPadOS 15 or later. Swipe down from the top right corner of your screen. Tap the “+” sign at the top left and “Add Controller” at the bottom. Scroll down to the hearing accessibility section and click on “Background sounds.” You can also search for it in the top bar.
Click “Add Control” to add another feature to the Control Center.
Once you have added Background Sounds, they will be available in your Control Center. To access sounds, simply hold the Background Sound icon with three musical notes, select your sound and adjust the volume. The sound of the ocean is my long-term journey, as I love its constant volume and repeating waves.
You can choose from sounds like dark, night and rain sounds.
After turning on Background Sounds in your Control Center, you can also click “Background Sound Settings” at the bottom of the screen. Here, you can allow audio to play continuously or only when other media is playing on your iPhone. You can also turn off Background Sounds if your phone is locked.
You can play Background Sounds all the time, even if you are watching or listening to other media.
One problem I had with the Background Sounds
Although I love Background Sounds and have been using it every night for the past five years, I have noticed one issue. I used to set it so that when my phone was in sleep mode, only certain people would call me in an emergency. However, this feature did not work. Even if I get a scam call in the middle of the night, my sound would stop playing and wake me up. Then I have to wait for the caller to leave a voicemail or hang up before I can turn on the soundscape, making it difficult for me to go back to sleep.
I went through scam calls disturbing my sleep almost every night. So, I set my iPhone to silence all calls during sleep mode and told my emergency contacts to call my partner instead — he woke up early, so it works.
The best part: It’s worth the trip
I use Background Sounds every night to block out outside noises, but it helps a lot when I’m on the move and can’t control the sounds around me. I’ve used this feature in every hotel and friend’s house I’ve stayed in over the past few years to block out noisy neighbors, loud music, barking dogs, driving cars, chirping birds and even a very loud light bulb. I think it would also be great on a plane, train or boat (a full sensory experience of ocean sounds).
The best part is that everything is right on my phone, which means I don’t have to buy a white noise machine or rely on a hotel or hostel to have it. It’s basically like having a little white noise machine in your pocket at all times — because who knows when or where you’ll take yourself to a cozy fireside or a babbling brook to catch some Z’s?
