Unlock Better Sleep: How to Easily Play Soothing Sounds on Your iPhone

The iPhone has a built-in feature for sleep sounds that can be accessed through the Settings menu. However, it can be difficult to find as it is located under Accessibility and labeled as "Background Sounds." This means that users have to navigate through multiple levels of settings to turn the feature on or off.

Instead of relying on third-party sleep sound apps, users can create a custom shortcut on their home screen for easier access. This eliminates the need for potentially bothersome ads or internet streaming throughout the night.

How to Play Sleep Sounds on iPhone

You’ll find these sounds in your iPhone’s Accessibility settings. First, open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.

Scroll down and select “Accessibility.”

Now go to “Audio/Visual.”

Finally, we can select “Background Sounds” (that was a hike).

To turn on the sounds, simply toggle the switch at the top of the screen.

There are a few things to tweak on this page as well. First, you can tap “Sound” to choose between a few white noise levels, ocean, rain, or stream.

Next, you can adjust the volume level, choose if you want it to play while other media is playing, and adjust the volume level for that as well.

Lastly, decide if you want the sounds to stop when the device is locked.

That’s all there is to it. This is a nice feature, but it’s not easy to get to. Let’s fix that.

How to Create an iPhone Background Sounds Shortcut

We’ll be utilizing the iPhone’s Shortcuts app to create a shortcut that can toggle the Background Sounds on and off directly from the home screen.

First, open the “Shortcuts” app.

Next, tap the plus icon in the top right to create a new shortcut.

Now tap “Add Action.”

Use the search bar to find “Set Background Sounds.”

Next, tap “Turn” in the text box and switch it to “Toggle.”

Now we can rename the shortcut and customize the color and icon. Tap the drop-down arrow at the top of the screen to do so.

Lastly, select “Add to Home Screen” from the drop-down menu.

Tap “Add” on the next screen.

Tapping the shortcut on your home screen now conveniently toggles the sleep sounds on or off. You can even opt to disable the Shortcuts notification if you prefer. This method proves to be a simpler and more efficient way to activate your sleep sounds at night. It's surprising that Apple has hidden this feature so deep within the settings and even more baffling that Siri lacks the ability to play them, especially when Google Assistant can.