First, check which Screen Time you have
Apple rebuilt Screen Time in iOS 27. The old pair of Downtime and App Limits became Screen Time Schedules and Time Allowances, and most guides online still describe the old layout. Before you follow any steps, open Settings → General → About and look at the iOS version.
- iOS 27 or later: follow Method 1. Apple notes that the new features need iOS 27 (or the matching iPadOS, macOS, or watchOS version) on all your Apple devices, so an older iPad signed in to the same account can hold you back.
- iOS 26 or earlier: follow Method 2, which uses Downtime.
Whichever version you're on, decide one thing before you start: do you want most of your phone off at certain times, or just a handful of apps? Screen Time is good at the first and clumsy at the second. That choice decides which method suits you.
Method 1: Screen Time Schedule and Time Allowances (iOS 27)
In iOS 27, a Screen Time Schedule splits your day into time windows, and each window shows which Time Allowance categories (Entertainment, Games, Social Media, and so on) are available during it. To block social apps in the evening, you create an evening window that doesn't include Social Media. The steps, from Apple's Schedules and Time Allowances guide:
- Go to Settings → Screen Time → Screen Time Schedule and turn on Schedule.
- Tap Add Schedule, choose the days it applies to (for example Sunday to Thursday), and confirm.
- Tap a time window to rename it ("Evening"), change its start and stop times, and select which Time Allowance categories are available during it. Leave out the categories you want blocked.
- Go back to Screen Time → Time Allowances and turn on Match Screen Time Schedule so your allowances follow the windows you just created.
- Check Screen Time → Always Allowed. Keep Phone, Messages, and anything you'd need in an emergency; remove everything else.
- Add a second schedule for the remaining days (Friday and Saturday, say) with later times.
Two details are worth knowing. Time Allowances work by category, so you can't easily pause Instagram while keeping every other social app open. And Apple says that if an app has a website it declares, the allowance applies to both, which closes the old "just use Safari instead" loophole for those apps.
Honest assessment: this is the most capable scheduling Apple has ever built in, with multiple windows per day and separate weekday and weekend schedules. It thinks in categories, though, and like all Screen Time limits it only becomes hard to ignore once a Screen Time passcode is involved. If you set that passcode yourself, it protects you from accidents, not from yourself. Our guide on making Screen Time harder to bypass covers how to fix that.
Method 2: Scheduled Downtime (iOS 26 and earlier)
On iOS 26 and earlier, the time-based tool is Downtime. During Downtime, only calls, messages, and the apps you choose to allow are available. Steps from Apple's iOS 26 Screen Time guide:
- Go to Settings → Screen Time and make sure App & Website Activity is on.
- Tap Downtime, then turn on Scheduled.
- Choose Every Day or Customize Days, then set the start and end times (for example 22:30 to 07:00).
- Set a Screen Time passcode if you haven't already, then turn on Block at Downtime. Without it, you just see a reminder and can carry on using the app.
- Go to Screen Time → Always Allowed and add the apps that should keep working: your alarm, a podcast app, an audiobook app, maps.
Want to block only a few apps? Downtime can't target specific apps directly. The workaround is to flip it around: add every app you're happy to use at night to Always Allowed, and everything else is blocked by default. It works, but it's easy to forget an app you need until you're standing at a train ticket barrier at 06:45.
You might also see App Limits suggested for this. They set a daily total (say, 30 minutes of Instagram), not a time of day, so they can't stop you spending those 30 minutes at 01:00.
Honest assessment: Downtime is free, already on your phone, and fine if you genuinely want the whole phone quiet overnight. It allows one window per day, blocks nearly everything rather than the apps that cause the problem, and without Block at Downtime it's a polite suggestion.
Method 3: Focus modes and Shortcuts (and why they fall short)
Search results often recommend these, so it's worth being clear about what they do.
Focus modes can turn on at a set time, silence notifications from chosen apps, and switch to a Home Screen page without your worst apps on it. Apple's Focus setup guide describes Focus filters as controlling what information apps show, such as which calendar or mail account appears. None of this stops an app from opening: a hidden app is still a swipe away in the App Library or Search. A scheduled Sleep Focus is a good companion to a block, because it quiets the notifications that tempt you to pick the phone up in the first place.
Shortcuts automations can run when you open a particular app, and Apple lists App and Time of Day among the triggers that can run without asking. People use this to show an alert or send themselves back to the Home Screen whenever TikTok opens. The trouble is that an app trigger fires all day, not just at night; limiting it to certain hours means adding time conditions to the shortcut, which is fiddly; and turning the automation off takes a few seconds in the Shortcuts app.
Honest assessment: both are fine as nudges. Neither is a block.
Every method compared
| Method | Blocks specific apps? | Different times per day or week? | How easy to get around | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloky (scheduled blocker) | Yes: apps or whole categories | Yes: custom day schedules | 20 taps for a 5-minute pass; deliberate, not instant | Free download; premium subscription, 3-day free trial |
| Screen Time Schedule (iOS 27) | By category | Yes: multiple windows, per-day schedules | Hard only if someone else holds the passcode | Free |
| Downtime (iOS 26 and earlier) | Everything except Always Allowed | One window per day; can differ by day | One tap without Block at Downtime; passcode with it | Free |
| App Limits | Yes | No: a daily total, not a time of day | "Ignore Limit" unless blocking is on | Free |
| Focus mode | No: hides and silences only | Yes | Open the App Library | Free |
| Shortcuts automation | Nudges out of an app | Possible, with effort | Switch the automation off | Free |
The pattern is plain once it's laid out: the built-in tools either block too much (Downtime), think in categories (iOS 27), or are trivially dismissed. That's the gap a dedicated bedtime app blocker fills.
Method 4: A scheduled app blocker
A dedicated blocker lets you choose the apps and the hours directly, without the all-or-nothing trade-off of Downtime or the category-only view of iOS 27. In Bloky, the setup takes a couple of minutes:
- Pick the apps. Choose individual apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, or whole categories. Everything else stays usable.
- Set the nightly schedule. Three times: when the block starts, your bedtime, and when apps come back in the morning. Custom day schedules let Friday run later than Tuesday.
- Leave it running. Each night the apps pause on their own. If you open one, you see a calm pause screen instead of the feed.
- Use the pass when you really need it. Tapping the mascot 20 times buys a 5-minute pass. That's deliberate friction rather than an unbreakable lock: a genuine need gets through, a half-asleep reflex usually doesn't.
During the day you can also start a focus session from 15 minutes to 4 hours, which is handy if "certain times" for you includes a work block as well as the night. Streaks count protected nights, and the weekly report compares your app time with the week before. If you're weighing up other blockers too, our comparison of app blockers for sleep judges seven of them on the same criteria.
Which times should you block?
The hours matter more than the method. A daily total of 60 minutes spent between midnight and 01:00 is the worst hour you could pick. The Sleep Foundation recommends that the hour before bed is spent on relaxing activities that don't involve screens, and a study of 844 adults in Social Science & Medicine linked phone use after lights out with worse sleep quality, more insomnia symptoms, and more fatigue. A good starting schedule looks like this:
- Block start: about an hour before you want to be asleep. If you aim for 23:00, start at 22:00.
- Unlock: after you've had breakfast, not the minute your alarm goes off. 07:30 or 08:00 stops the morning scroll in bed as well.
- Weekends: push both times later by an hour rather than switching the block off. A schedule that takes Friday off tends to take Sunday off too.
- Optional daytime window: if work is the other problem, add a focus block for your hardest two hours, not the whole working day.
Start with nights only. They're the easiest win and the one your sleep notices first. Once that holds for a couple of weeks, tighten or add a daytime window. Our plan for stopping night scrolling covers the rest of the evening: where the phone charges, and what you do instead.
Common mistakes when scheduling app blocks
- Forgetting Block at Downtime. Without it, Downtime is a reminder you can wave away. It's the single most common reason people say "Downtime doesn't work".
- Blocking one app and leaving its twin. Block TikTok and the habit moves to Reels or Shorts by Wednesday. Block the feeds as a group.
- A crowded Always Allowed list. Every app on it is an exception at 01:00. Messages has to stay; YouTube doesn't.
- Following a pre-iOS 27 guide on an iOS 27 phone. If your menus say Schedules and Time Allowances, instructions mentioning Downtime describe the old layout.
- Making the schedule too strict on day one. A block that starts at 20:00 when you're used to scrolling until 01:00 gets switched off by Thursday. Start an hour before bed and move it earlier later.