How to Schedule Sleep and Wake on a Mac (2026)

You can tell a Mac to turn on or wake at a set time and sleep or shut down on its own — a real timetable, not just "sleep after 10 minutes." It is perfect for waking the machine before you sit down, letting it sleep every night, or bringing it up for a scheduled backup. Here is exactly where the setting lives, how to do the same thing from Terminal, and the one catch on newer laptops.

The quick way: Battery → Schedule

On a Mac that still shows the schedule pane:

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS).
2. Go to Battery → click Options…, or on a desktop go to Energy Saver.
3. Look for Schedule… (on older macOS it is a button in the Energy Saver pane).
4. Tick Start up or wake and pick the days and time — for example Weekdays at 8:30 AM.
5. Tick the second row and choose Sleep, Restart, or Shut Down at a time — for example Every day at 11:00 PM.
6. Click Apply.

That is it. The Mac will wake or power on and sleep on that timetable as long as it has power.

Important: newer laptops hid this pane

Apple removed the graphical Schedule pane from Battery on Apple silicon MacBooks (M1, M2, M3 and later). On those laptops you will not see a Schedule button under Battery → Options. Two things still work:

• Desktops (Mac mini, iMac, Mac Studio) and Intel MacBooks generally still have the Schedule/Energy Saver pane.
• Any Mac — including Apple silicon laptops — can still be scheduled from Terminal with the pmset command below. The feature is there; only the checkbox screen went away.

The Terminal way: pmset repeat

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities) and use pmset. You will be asked for your password because it changes a system setting.

Wake or power on every weekday at 8:30 AM, sleep every night at 11:00 PM:

sudo pmset repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRF 08:30:00 sleep MTWRFSU 23:00:00

The day letters are M T W R F S U (R = Thursday, U = Sunday). Use MTWRFSU for every day. Swap wakeorpoweron for wake if you only want it to wake from sleep (not cold-boot), and sleep for shutdown or restart if you prefer.

Check what is scheduled:

pmset -g sched

Cancel the whole repeating schedule:

sudo pmset repeat cancel

A one-time event (say, wake once tomorrow at 7 AM for a backup) uses schedule instead of repeat:

sudo pmset schedule wake "07/15/2026 07:00:00"

What actually makes it wake — and what stops it

A scheduled wake only fires if the Mac has power and the lid rules allow it:

• Keep it plugged in. A MacBook on battery may skip a scheduled power-on to protect the battery; desktops and plugged-in laptops are reliable.
• Closed-lid wake works for the schedule, but a MacBook may go back to sleep if the lid is shut and nothing (like an external display or a running backup) holds it awake.
• If it wakes but will not go back to sleep on schedule, something is holding it awake — a network setting, Power Nap, or an app. Our guide on why a MacBook won't sleep or keeps waking walks through every wake trigger.

Should you schedule sleep at all?

Modern Macs sleep so efficiently that a nightly sleep is usually better than a scheduled shut down — sleep resumes instantly and still sips almost no power. Reach for a scheduled shutdown only if you want a truly cold machine overnight. If your goal is just to stretch battery during the day, Low Power Mode is the simpler lever.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no Schedule button under Battery on my MacBook?

Apple removed the graphical schedule pane from Battery on Apple silicon MacBooks. Use the sudo pmset repeat… command above — it does the same job on every Mac. Desktops and Intel MacBooks still have the pane.

Will a scheduled wake work with the lid closed?

Yes, the wake fires, but a MacBook may return to sleep if nothing keeps it awake once open. Keep it plugged in, and have the scheduled task (backup, download) start promptly so the Mac stays up.

Does scheduling sleep or shutdown hurt the Mac?

No. Scheduled sleep, restart, and shutdown are built-in macOS features and are safe to use daily.

My Mac won't wake from a schedule at all — what's wrong?

Confirm it is plugged in and that the schedule shows with pmset -g sched. If it still won't wake from sleep, see MacBook won't wake or keeps waking — a stuck power assertion or a firmware issue can block it.

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