Mac sleep settings, explained
Apple split the old Energy Saver pane across Lock Screen, Battery, and Energy when System Settings arrived in macOS Ventura. Here's where every sleep setting lives now, what each one actually does, and the two things you can only do from Terminal.
The short answer
When the screen turns off: System Settings › Lock Screen. Whether the Mac sleeps after that: Battery › Options on a MacBook, Energy on a desktop. A sleep timer: sudo shutdown -s +30 sleeps the Mac in 30 minutes. A sleep and wake schedule: sudo pmset repeat, since the Schedule button is gone.
Where each setting lives
| Setting | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Turn display off on battery when inactive | Lock Screen | Screen timeout on battery |
| Turn display off on power adapter when inactive | Lock Screen | Screen timeout when plugged in |
| Start Screen Saver when inactive | Lock Screen | Shows the screen saver before the display turns off |
| Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off | Lock Screen | How quickly the Mac locks |
| Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off | Battery › Options (MacBook) | Keeps a plugged-in MacBook awake after the screen turns off |
| Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off | Energy (desktop Macs) | The same, for Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio, Mac Pro |
| Put hard disks to sleep when possible | Battery › Options or Energy | Spins down idle disks, including external drives |
| Wake for network access | Battery › Options or Energy | Wakes the Mac for file sharing and remote access |
| Low Power Mode | Battery (MacBook) | Trades speed for battery life |
How the pieces fit together
macOS sleeps in two stages. First, after the Lock Screen timeout, the display turns off. Then, unless something stops it, the Mac sleeps too. The prevent-sleep switch in Battery › Options or Energy stops that second stage, but on a MacBook only while it's plugged in.
Apps can also hold the Mac awake with a power assertion. That's how a video call, a Time Machine backup, caffeinate, or Midnight Oil keeps it up for as long as they need. To see who's holding it awake right now:
pmset -g assertionsA closed lid is different. It's an explicit sleep request, and assertions don't override it. See clamshell mode for the ways around that.
A sleep timer
macOS has no sleep-timer setting, but Terminal has one:
sudo shutdown -s +30 # sleep in 30 minutes
sudo shutdown -s 2330 # sleep at 11:30 PM
sudo killall shutdown # cancel it
pmset sleepnow # sleep right nowDespite the name, shutdown -s puts the Mac to sleep rather than shutting it down. More ways, including a Shortcut and sleeping when a job finishes, in how to set a sleep timer on a Mac.
A sleep and wake schedule
The old Energy Saver pane had a Schedule button; System Settings doesn't. pmset still does it:
# Sleep every night at 11 PM, wake weekdays at 7:30 AM
sudo pmset repeat sleep MTWRFSU 23:00:00 wakeorpoweron MTWRF 07:30:00
pmset -g sched # show the schedule
sudo pmset repeat cancel # remove itDays are written M T W R F S U, where R is Thursday and U is Sunday.
The opposite, keeping the Mac awake on a schedule such as weekdays 9 to 5, isn't something macOS offers at all. Midnight Oil's Schedules do it, with conditions like “only while plugged in.”
See every setting at once
pmset -g prints the current values, including some System Settings doesn't show. A few worth knowing:
displaysleep: minutes before the display turns off.sleep: minutes before the Mac sleeps;0means never.disksleep: minutes before idle disks spin down.SleepDisabled:1if someone ranpmset -a disablesleep 1. If your MacBook never sleeps, check this first.
Questions
Where are the sleep settings on a Mac?
In System Settings. Lock Screen sets when the display turns off. On a MacBook, Battery › Options holds the switch that stops the Mac sleeping on the power adapter; on a desktop Mac, the same switch is in Energy.
How do I set a sleep timer on a Mac?
Open Terminal and run sudo shutdown -s +30 to put the Mac to sleep in 30 minutes. Use any number of minutes, or a clock time such as sudo shutdown -s 2330. Cancel it with sudo killall shutdown.
How do I schedule my Mac to sleep and wake?
Use pmset: sudo pmset repeat sleep MTWRFSU 23:00:00 wakeorpoweron MTWRF 07:30:00 sleeps every night at 11 PM and wakes on weekdays at 7:30. See the schedule with pmset -g sched, and remove it with sudo pmset repeat cancel.
What's the difference between display sleep and sleep?
Display sleep turns off the screen while the Mac keeps running: downloads continue, agents keep working. Sleep suspends the whole Mac, so apps and network connections pause until it wakes.
What does Wake for network access do?
It lets the Mac wake briefly when another device asks for something it shares, such as a file share, a printer, or remote access, then go back to sleep.
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