How to fall asleep to music on Android with a sleep timer

Short answer: start your music, tap ⋮ on the Now Playing screen and choose Sleep Timer. Pick 5, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 hour, End of track or your own time, then tap Set timer. When the time is up, Audify pauses the music. It does not fade out, and the timer runs only once, so you set it again each night. For rain, waves or meditation sounds instead of your own songs, Calm sounds plays offline once downloaded and has a timer of its own.

How to set the sleep timer in Audify

1. 1. Start playing your music. Audify only sets a timer while something is playing. If the music is paused, it asks you to start a song first.
2. 2. Open Sleep Timer. On the Now Playing screen, tap ⋮ at the top right and choose Sleep Timer. It is also in the More tab, under Tools.
3. 3. Choose how long. Pick 5, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 hour, or End of track to pause when the current song ends. For any other length, choose Set timer and turn the hour and minute wheels; the longest is 23 hours 59 minutes.
4. 4. Tap Set timer. A countdown appears on the Now Playing screen and next to Sleep Timer in the More tab, so you can see how long is left.
5. 5. To cancel or change it, tap the countdown. You can also open Sleep Timer again. Stop Timer cancels it. Set new timer cancels it too and lets you pick a new length. There is no button to add minutes to a timer that is already running.

What happens when the timer runs out

The music pauses, and nothing closes. When the countdown reaches zero, Audify pauses whatever was playing. It does not fade the volume down first and it does not close the app, so in the morning you press play and the song carries on from where it stopped.

End of track waits for the song to finish. Audify pauses when the current song ends, which suits long tracks and albums better than a fixed time. Skipping to another song cancels it.

It runs once, then it is gone. The timer is not saved anywhere. After it goes off, nothing is left that could stop your music the next day, so you set it again each night. Closing the app's screen does not stop the countdown, because it runs in Audify's background player, but restarting the phone or force-stopping Audify clears it. Pausing the music yourself does not pause the countdown.

Starting something else cancels it. A timer set for your songs is cancelled when you start a Calm sound, a video or the radio. The radio player has a sleep timer of its own, from 15 minutes to 2 hours or a time you choose.

Calm sounds: rain, waves and meditation, offline

Where to find them. Calm sounds is the last tab on the Songs screen: swipe the row of tabs at the top (Songs, Playlists, Folders, Albums and so on) to the end. There are 15 sounds in three groups. Sleep Sounds: Above the Clouds, Deep Sleep, Gentle Rain, Ocean Waves, Wind Chimes and Zen Music. Relaxing Sounds: Calm Sea, Forest Stream, Gentle River, Raindrops, Soothing Piano and Zen Relaxation. Meditation Sounds: Binaural Beats, Birds Chirping and Didgeridoo.

Download once, then listen offline. Each group downloads from Google Play the first time you tap it, about 30 to 40 MB, so do it on Wi-Fi. Audify keeps the files on the phone, in Music/Audify Music Player/Calm, and plays them with no connection. They stay out of your song library.

A timer of its own. Tap a sound and the Calm player opens. Its timer button offers the same choices as the music timer. The group keeps playing on repeat until you pause it or the timer pauses it.

One sound at a time. Audify plays either a Calm sound or your music, not both: starting a Calm sound pauses your songs and cancels their timer. You also cannot layer two sounds or set a volume for each one.

If the music stops before the timer does

The countdown runs in Audify's background player, so it keeps going with the screen off and the app closed. If the music stops early at a random moment, the phone's battery saving has usually closed Audify. Android's own help says Battery Saver limits or turns off background activity. When the app is closed this way, its timer is lost too.

The fix is to let Audify run in the background: Android Settings → Apps → Audify → Battery → Unrestricted, and Autostart as well on Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo phones. Inside Audify, More → Settings shows a Background Playback item that leads to the same permission while it is still missing. Fix music that stops when the screen turns off.

Headphones, speakers and volume at night

Keep it quiet. The World Health Organization's safe-listening advice is that the risk to your hearing grows with both volume and time, and it suggests keeping your device's volume at no more than 60% of maximum. A sleep timer takes care of the time: the music stops instead of playing into your ears all night.

A speaker by the bed is kinder than earbuds. The Sleep Foundation warns that earbuds worn to sleep can hurt the ear canal if the volume is too high and can lead to a build-up of earwax, and suggests a small speaker close to the bed instead.

Choose slower songs. Most studies of music and sleep used songs at around 60 to 80 beats per minute, the Sleep Foundation notes, though some people relax better to faster music, so try what works for you. Keep a bedtime set in its own playlist so it is one tap away. How to make a playlist.

Common questions

Sources

“Try falling asleep to music that is relaxing or slower, around 60 to 80 beats per minute.”Sleep Foundation, Music and Sleep: Can Music Help You Sleep Better?

• Music and Sleep: Can Music Help You Sleep Better? — Sleep Foundation
• Deafness and hearing loss: Safe listening — World Health Organization
• Get the most life from your Android device's battery — Android Help

Read next

• Why does my music stop when the screen turns off?
• How to make a playlist on Android (offline)
• Best equalizer settings for headphones and earbuds