How to Change the Sleep Preferences on Your Mac

May 20, 2022

1 minute

When you first get a new Mac, you will find that some default system preferences may not be to your liking. Luckily, with each update and upgrade, Macs become more and more customizable!

Personally, the most annoying and persistent default system preference on Apple's Macs are the sleep settings. By default, your Mac is set to go to sleep every minute, which is very inconvenient if you are like me and spend hours on your computer working or writing. Nearly every time you step away from your computer, you are forced to log back in.

While I love Apple's rigorous privacy policies, I find this one to be a bit much. So, in this guide, I show you how to alter your sleep settings so that your Mac sleeps when you want it to!

h/mac • 128 guides

h/apple • 163 guides

h/technology • 89 guides

First, turn on your Mac and open System Preferences. I like to do this from my dock, but you can also go to the Apple logo in the upper right-hand corner and select System Preferences there.

Next, click "battery." It is represented by the big, green battery, so you can't miss it!

Now, in the left-hand column, click battery again.

Finally, you can click and drag the toggle to the desired time. 5 minutes is my preferred time. Once you have chosen your selected sleep time, you are good to go!

Keep in mind that your sleep preferences can impact the life of your battery. So, it is best not to set your sleep timer to "never." If you want your battery to last throughout the day, try setting it for no more than 10 minutes.