Apple Watch Tip: How To Use Nightstand Mode

The Apple Watch has a nice feature called “Nightstand Mode.” Here's how users can activate it and enjoy its benefits.

The Apple Watch is a nifty device that can be used for more than just telling the time, monitoring one's heartbeat and activities, and making sure that a user gets the help that he needs when he takes a hard fall. It's a health-centric wearable, after all, and it does its job really well.

Aside from telling time like a regular wristwatch, the Apple Watch can also tell the time while it's charging and lying on its side at night. This feature is called “Nightstand mode,” and it's a great way to use Apple's wearable at home, particularly when the user needs to sleep.

While some users, including Cult of Mac's Charlie Sorrel, prefer to wear the Apple Watch while sleeping so that it can wake them up with gentle vibrations to the wrist, some might prefer to use it as a bedside clock that also doubles as an alarm clock that will wake them up with soothing sounds.

Here's how to use the Apple Watch's Nightstand mode:

• First, users should get their Apple Watches and launch Settings on it. Alternatively, users can also head to Settings on the Watch app on their iPhones.
• Second, once there, users should for Bedside Mode under General, then toggle the switch to on. It should be above Enable Screenshots.

Now that Bedside Mode, or Nightstand mode, is enabled, users can expect the Apple Watch to do the following:

Act as a bedside clock

When placed on the charger, the Apple Watch will now display the current time, date and battery charge level, full screen. It will also show active alarms that the user has set.

The display automatically dims and turns off until the user touches the Apple Watch or taps on the surface where the device is placed. Moving hands or fingers towards the wearable might also prompt it to turn the display on.

Sound alarms

The Apple Watch will act as an alarm clock too, if alarms have been set. The display will start lighting up as the alarm time approaches, gradually getting brighter the closer it is to the set time, then will play a calming sound once it's time. Users can then choose to snooze or dismiss the alarm by tapping on the designated buttons on screen, or by touching the Digital Crown.