Studies have shown that exposure to bright blue light in the evening can affect your circadian rhythms and make it harder to fall asleep. Night Shift uses your computer's clock and geolocation to determine when it's sunset in your location. It then automatically shifts the colors in your display to the warmer end of the spectrum. In the morning it returns the display to its regular settings.
How to set up Night Shift
Make sure that your Mac meets the system requirements for Night Shift, then follow these steps:
- Choose Apple menu > System Settings (or System Preferences).
- Click Displays.
- Click Night Shift.
From here you can create a custom Night Shift schedule, schedule Night Shift to turn on automatically from sunset to sunrise, or manually turn Night Shift off or on until sunrise or the scheduled time. You can also make the color temperature more or less warm when Night Shift is on. Warmer color temperatures show more yellow and less blue.
System requirements for Night Shift
Night Shift requires macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later and one of these Mac computers, using the built-in display or the displays listed:
- MacBook introduced in 2015 or later
- MacBook Air introduced in 2012 or later
- MacBook Pro introduced in 2012 or later
- Mac mini introduced in 2012 or later
- Mac Studio introduced in 2022
- iMac introduced in 2012 or later
- Mac Pro introduced in 2013 or later
- Apple Studio Display
- Apple Pro Display XDR
- Apple LED Cinema Display
- Apple Thunderbolt Display
- LG UltraFine 5K Display
- LG UltraFine 4K Display