A simple Pixel Watch 3 setting has made my naps a lot more peaceful

When Google introduced the Pixel Watch 3, one of the features that first jumped at me was the new automatic bedtime mode setting. It seemed like such a trivial feature on paper, but I knew it would make a big difference for me and the way I use my smartwatch.

With the previous Pixel Watch 2, I had set up bedtime mode to synchronize with my Android phone. So when I plugged my phone to charge each night after a certain hour, it would trigger bedtime mode on the phone, and since that was synchronized with my watch, it would carry over. It was a bit of a workaround, but it worked. Except when I forgot to charge my phone, the cable wasn’t properly plugged in, or when I took a quick nap.

In those instances, the phone — and thus watch — would remain in their normal mode, and any message or notification would make my wrist vibrate. Plus, any movement would cause the watch’s screen to light up in the dark. Neither of these is ideal if you’re trying to disconnect your brain and fall asleep.

Auto-bedtime mode on the Pixel Watch 3 has been a boon for me in these kinds of situations. Google said that the Watch 3 should automatically detect when you’re asleep and turn on bedtime mode, and then automatically turn it off when you’re awake. This uses Fitbit’s sleep detection algorithms, so if you think Fitbit is an accurate sleep tracker, it should also accurately control your watch’s bedtime mode.

In my experience, this works flawlessly. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling to attend IFA in Berlin, keeping weird sleep schedules, waking up at 2 AM for a flight, getting sick and spending extra time in bed napping and sleeping, and forgetting to charge my phone all the time while I do it. And every single time I have fallen asleep, even for a 30-minute nap, I’ve woken up to find the Pixel Watch 3 had switched by itself to bedtime mode.

This has made my mid-sickness impromptu naps much more peaceful because I trust that the watch won’t vibrate for every notification and will turn off its display to help me properly doze off. Less technology and more sleep — those are always a good thing.

Of course, the biggest concern for me is what happens if I’m waiting for a call or an important message, and for now, I’m afraid I don’t have the answer except to turn off the auto-bedtime setting or to make sure my phone’s Do Not Disturb settings allow that specific call or message to reach me.

In his video review of the Pixel Watch 3 (embedded at the top of this post), my colleague C. Scott Brown explained an instance where the auto-bedtime mode got triggered when he was just lying still and reading, i.e. not asleep, which caused him to miss an important notification. This hasn’t happened to me yet; the watch seems to really know when I’m simply lying still (have I mentioned that I’ve been sick in bed a lot?) and when I’m actually sleeping. But it does highlight the problem of trusting the watch to know when to go completely silent and preparing beforehand if you’re expecting some urgent call or message.

For now, though, I do like the reliability of this aut0-bedtime mode setting. It works when it’s expected to and the exceptions are just super minor compared to the simplicity of having my watch doze off with me.

How to turn on auto-bedtime on the Pixel Watch 3

To turn on this setting, go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Do Not Disturb, scroll down to Auto-bedtime and toggle it on.