Should I turn my smart watch off at night

Should I Turn Off My Apple Watch at Night? Best Practices

If you dont wear your Apple Watch while sleeping and are wondering whether you can turn off your Apple Watch at night to save the battery, you are at the right place. While some users wear their Apple Watches to bed to record their sleep metrics, others charge them overnight.

But should you turn off your Apple Watch at night?

It is not necessary to turn Apple Watch off overnight. It is better and more convenient for the watches lithium-ion batteries to be charged every night, overnight. You cannot overcharge the batteries, and starting the day with a fully charged Apple Watch is better.

I never turn off my Apple Watch. Either I wear it to track my sleep (it isnt the best at this), or I charge it overnight, ready to start the day with a fully charged watch.

Read on to find out why you shouldnt turn off your Apple Watch and whether turning off your Apple Watch saves battery.

Why You Shouldnt Turn Off Your Apple Watch

Turning off your Apple Watch every night would affect its battery life in the long run. So you should not turn off your Apple Watch at night with hopes of saving its battery because they use very little battery at night. Instead, its better to leave them on and connected to the charger overnight.

Many users say leaving your Apple Watch to charge overnight is much better than turning it off at night. Leaving your watch to charge overnight will not harm its battery because your Apple Watchlithium-ionbattery stops charging once it reaches 100. It cannot overcharge.

On the other hand, if you turn off your Apple Watch every night, it will harm its battery life in the long run because turning your Apple Watch off and on repeatedly damages its battery life as turning off puts a lot of stress on the device. So its better to leave it connected to the charger.

Depending on your Apple Watch, it wont have the best battery life. If you need it for work, waking up to a 30% charged watch that will die in a couple of hours is not good, especially as the batteries do not like being undercharged.

Does your Apple Watch battery drain too fast? To solve this problem, I wrote a helpful guide on maximizing your battery life. Checkit out.

Some people also turn their Apple Watches off, worrying that leaving them on will expose them to harmful radiation. Thats not the case with todays advanced smartwatches because the Apple Watch is safe to wear. According toresearchers,they do not emit harmful radiation at night, so you dont need to turn them off.

Does Turning off Apple Watch Save Battery?

An Apple Watch uses a 2% charge every hour when notin use. You can save more battery by turning off the always-on display at night or by keeping your Apple Watch charging overnight.

I took my Apple Watch off my wrist, and it went from 95% to 93% charge in one hour. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a night, you will only save a 16% charge.

Modern batteries are designed to stay on and constantly charge. In addition, they have very light usage during the night when you are not interacting with the Watch, so the battery will barely drain.

If you want to conserve your battery at night, you can consider turning off the always-on display to save your Apple Watchs battery life.

To turn off the Always-On display on your Apple Watch, go to the Watch app on your iPhone and go toGeneral > Display & Brightness. Next, unselect the Always On option.

You can also try the following tips to make your Apple Watchs battery last longer:

1. Turn off the Wake on Wrist Raise option.
2. Put your Apple Watch in Sleep mode when you are sleeping.
3. Minimize the display brightness.
4. Use a dark watch face that consumes less power.
5. Reduce notifications by only allowing notifications from important apps.
6. Avoid taking calls from your Apple Watch if possible.
7. Use the Power Saving Mode when working out.

Following these tips ensures that your Apple Watch consumes less power. You can also checkApples official guide on Apple Watch battery and charging.

Are you still confused about why you can charge your Apple Watch all day without issue? To understand, I suggestyou read my helpful articleon why you cannot overcharge an Apple Watch.

7 Apple Watch settings you should enable and disable right away

If youre the owner of a new Apple Watch, you might be wondering which settings you should enable (or disable) after youve taken your smartwatch out of the box. Whether you just got the Apple Watch 7, Apple Watch SE or any other Apple Watch, here's how to get started.

The Apple Watch is the best smartwatch you can buy, largely due to a customizable user experience that caters to most individuals needs. Do you want your smartwatch to detect when youve fallen, and call emergency services? Theres a feature for that. Do you want to turn off Always On display mode make your new hgApple Watch battery life last longer? You can do that, too.

All these Apple Watch settings are optional, though we recommend checking them out so you best know how to use the Apple Watch. You can reference this guide or our smartwatch buying guide at any time, too not just when youre first setting up your smartwatch.

Most (but not all) of these features are found on all the best Apple Watch models. But be sure to check out our guides to the Apple Watch 7 vs. Apple Watch 6 and Apple Watch 7 vs. Apple Watch SE for all the differences between different Apple Watch versions.

1. Fall detection

Fall Detection isn't automatically enabled on a new Apple Watch. There are multiple instances where the Fall Detection feature which can recognize if you've taken a hard tumble and summon emergency services to your location has saved lives. Whether you're into outdoor sports or take the stairs regularly, there's no reason not to turn on Fall Detection.

Go to Settings > Fall Detection and toggle Fall Detection on. Your Apple Watch will warn you that if you're physically active, certain movements might trigger fall detection alerts. In that case, you'll want to let your Apple Watch know you're OK so it doesn't sound an alarm and call for help.

2. Apple Watch passcode

You'll be prompted to create an Apple Watch passcode during set up. Butshouldyou create one? In most cases, we recommend protecting your smartwatch with a unique code. This will add a layer of security to major settings, and stop someone else from resetting your watch if you happen to lose it somewhere.

You can turn your passcode on or off at any time by going to Settings > Passcode. Apple also requires your Apple Watch to have a passcode if you want to have your Apple Wallet on your wrist. Since the Apple Watch has an NFC chip, you can use it to pay at any place with contactless check out.

3. Apple Wallet

Speaking of Apple Wallet, this is another feature you'll be asked to enable during set up. If you have any credit cards saved to the Apple Wallet on your connected iPhone, you'll be asked whether you want to add them to your wrist for Apple Pay. You'll likely need to enter your credit card's CVV code, and your wallet might take a moment to verify your information with your card issuer.

In your Apple Wallet you can also hold store rewards cards, movie passes, airplane tickets and more. In watchOS 8 you can add hotel room and other digital keys to your wrist as well. To add a card to your Apple Wallet, go to the Apple Wallet app on your smartwatch and click Add Card. You can add Previous Cards (one in your iPhone Apple Wallet,) Debit or Credit Card (new form of payment) or Transit Card (public transportation passes available in select markets.)

4. Always On display

With the exception of the Apple Watch SE, every Apple Watch since the Apple Watch 5 has offered an Always On display mode. If your Apple Watch supports this feature, you'll be prompted to enable Always On display when you set up your watch.

While the setting is convenient for seeing your complications at a glance, you might not want your wrist lit up all the time. You also might want to extend your Apple Watch's expected 18-hour battery life. In that case, disabling Always On display could be a smart move for you.

On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On. Toggle Always On off or on, depending on which mode you prefer. You can customize which apps or information you want to see when your wrist is down, too.

5. Noise alerts

Enabling Noise notifications will let your new Apple Watch alert you when sound levels in your environment or through your headphones could be harmful to your hearing. Your Apple Watch doesn't record loud sounds, but it does periodically measure the noise levels in decibels around you using the Apple Watch's microphone.

Go to Settings > Noise and toggle on Environmental Sound Measurements to enable Noise notifications. You can also assign a decibel threshold that sends you an alert when the noise level in your environment reaches a certain height. According to theCDC, repeated, long-term exposure to noises above 70 decibels may cause permanent damage. We recommend using Noise notifications so you're in tune with the sounds around you and how they might be impacting your hearing.

6. Sleep tracking

Apple Watch sleep trackingisn't as sophisticated sleep tracking on the best Fitbit and best Garmin watches, but it's a useful tool for keeping a regular sleep schedule. It requires wearing your new Apple Watch overnight so it can see when you're awake versus asleep, and check your respiratory rate.

You'll want to create a Wind Down routine for complete effect, allowing your Apple Watch, as well as your iPhone, to alert you when you should start getting ready for bed in order to meet your sleep goals. You can even enable charging reminders to ensure your smartwatch will make it through the night.

Go to Settings > Sleep and scroll down until you see Sleep Tracking and Charging Reminder toggles. Turn both on to enable sleep tracking on your new Apple Watch.

7. Find Devices

Another Apple Watch feature that doesn't come automatically enabled is Find Devices. This app is new with watchOS 8, and is one of the more effective waysto never lose your iPhoneagain. In the Find Devices app, you can set Notify When Left Behind alerts that tell you when you've forgotten one of your Apple products somewhere.

You can use the app to locate any of your devices and get directions to them. It's an effective way totrack down lost AirPods, for example. And if you have anApple AirTagattached to your bag or other personal item, you can be led to it, too.

Open the Find Devices app on your new Apple Watch. You'll be asked to allow Find Devices to use your location. Click the "While Using the App" setting to enable Find Devices.

Should I Leave My TV On Standby At Night?

Should I Leave My TV On Standby At Night?

To un-plug your TV at night, or not to un-plug your TV at night that is the question! To be honest there is more than one right answer to this question. The energy companies and government will tell you that you should do everything within your power to cut your energy usage and your local TV shop or TV engineer will tell you to leave it on. So, what should you do? In this blog I discuss the reasons for turning your TV off at night and reasons not to leave your TV off a night.

Reasons To Leave TV On Standby At Night

There are many reasons to leave your TV on at night and not disconnecting it from its power source altogether.

TVs Perform Software Upgrades at Night

A lot of TVs will update their software at night when less people are typically watching TV as often you can not do both at the same time. Periodically manufacturers of TVs and set top boxes will bring out new software. This is usually to improve the user experience but often it is to fix bugs and glitches in the existing software. Admittedly this is becoming less of an issue with modern connected Smart TVs that connect to your internet connection as this with the broadband speeds becoming increasingly quicker is often completed in a minute or two whereas over the air software updates which were completed over satellite or the TV aerial usually took far longer. The problem with switching your equipment off at night is it can miss these vital software upgrades which can seriously impact the performance of your TV/ set top box. This used to be very common with Sky boxes which would develop issues that they otherwise wouldnt have. This however could be overcome by doing a manual software upgrade on the Sky box.

You Might Throw A Perfectly Good TV Away!

If your TV is consistently missing software updates, it could look as behave as if it was faulty. You may call out a local installer to come look at your TV aerial or satellite dish to ensure that it isnt that and if proved to not be. You could end up throwing a perfectly good TV away believing it to be faulty when all it needed was the software updated as this isnt always something that owners of TVs often think to check. If you navigate into the settings of your TV or AV equipment you can often check to see whether you have the latest software and if you havent this should be updated. Like already mentioned this can be done over the internet or over the air. Alternatively, if neither is possible you could find the latest software/firmware on the internet, download it to your computer and upload it to a USB stick to be inserted into the TV or AV equipment via the USB slot. Most AV products have at least one USB slot but older products may not have any! Bare that in mind before you cut the power off at night.

Some TVs Wont Allow You To Turn Off Standby

Many manufactures completely remove the ability to switch the power off completely from the TV so that the only way to turn it off completely and off of standby would be to switch off at the power socket or to disconnect from the mains supply altogether. This isnt always easy as often these are behind the TV cabinet or behind the TV itself on wall mounted TVs which you may have to remove from its bracket altogether to get to. This is the manufacturer telling you that we dont want the TV removed from standby.

Your Scheduled Recordings Will Fail

If youre using something like a Sky box to record programmes during the night, these will fail if you switch the equipment off at night. Well not necessarily if you switch the TV off of standby but leave the Sky box on but Im sure that you will get the point. If the PVR is left on standby it will automatically power up and power down during the scheduled recording.

Reasons To Turn TV Off Standby At Night

Now we have discussed the reasons why a TV should be left on at night, lets look at why it may be a good idea to turn the TV off from standby at night or to unplug the TV altogether.

It Saves Electricity Small Amount

Turning a TV off at night completely and removing from standby will save electricity and will save you a small amount of money. When I say a small amount of money, I mean a small amount of money. Probably a few pounds per year, not the 100 pounds a year or so that you local authority will tell you.

Modern TVs when on standby use barely any electricity at all. These are not the same as old CRT TVs that had valves, tunes and heaters that did consume a lot of electricity keeping the TV ready so that it would quicker power on when you turned it on via the remote control. In fact some old CRT TVs used to reach 25,000 volts inside so they werent the most energy efficient things. Some TV technologies are more efficient than others. Here are some of the energy usages when on standby.

So, its up to whether you think whether unplugging your TV each night to save a small amount of energy and money each year is worth it for you.

Its Safer A Little Bit

It actually is safer to unplug your TV at night, but thatsnot to say that leaving the TV plugged on and on standby is unsafe. How much safer it is all depends on your set up. Modern electrical circuit boards have RCDs and MCBs to protect the electrical circuit and trip out the electrics is something has happened that could become dangerous and cause a fire. The TV itself also has a fuse inside the plug which is designed to fail first before it causes damage to the TV and becomes unsafe.

Its worth mentioning if you have multiple mains extension strips and cables plugged into single socket then Im sure that the fire brigade will tell you to unplug this when you can.

Other Items For Consideration Unplugging The TV Altogether

I have included these in the article, but I wouldnt necessarily make a case for leaving the TV on standby at night or not but for unplugging the TV altogether.

Should I Unplug TV During Thunderstorms?

This is a scenario where I would advise to not only cut off the TV power but to unplug the TV altogether from the socket. With electrical storms an electrical surge can come down your telephone line or TV aerial and fry your TV together with everything else that is connected. Please dont panic every time you see a bolt of lightening or the roar of thunder as this is actually not very common. That being said, I have attended repair jobs where lightening has struck the TV aerial and fried everything it came in contact with. The cables, aerial and cables all needed to be replaced. If you see that a particular strong storm is forecast I would recommend disconnecting your TVs to be on the safe side.

Unplugging TV When Going Away On Holiday

If youre going away on holiday or are not going to be in the house for a while. Then I would recommend just unplugging your TV equipment to be on the safe side. Just remembering before disconnecting your Sky+, Freesat+ or other type of PVR that youre recordings are going to fail whilst the equipment is disconnected from the mains supply. Many of today's equipment like Sky and Youview boxes used for BT Vision also have a facility where you can schedule recordings when away from your house via an app. Obviously this function will not work if the box is disconnected.

Conclusion Its Up To You I Wouldnt Personally

Im guessing that you can already tell by the points made that I personally wouldnt unplug your TV at night. But if it helps you sleep a little easier then you should absolutely do it.

I hoped you liked this blog. Please check back for some more. If you have any questions please LEAVE A COMMENT in the blog comments section. Please DO NOT CALL and please DO NOT E-MAIL. This is because we are as mall business serving East Sussex, parts of West Sussex & Kent only and we do not have the facility to answer all the questions we get asked via these methods. Plus we get asked the same questions over and over again. Please leave a comment below and everyone will get the benefit of the question asked and the answer given.

Until next time,

Tom