How to Prevent a Mac From Going to Sleep

This article explains how to prevent your Mac from going to sleep, including instructions to schedule an automatic sleep time after you have set your screen to stay on all the time.

How Do I Keep My Mac Screen On All the Time?

Your Mac has a number of energy-saving features, which includes sleep mode. This mode is designed to activate whenever your Mac hasn’t been in use for a while. The screen turns off, and the Mac enters a low power mode until you wake it up. If you want your Mac screen to stay on all the time, then you need to fully disable sleep mode.

Here’s how to keep your Mac screen on all the time:

1. Click the Apple logo in the upper right corner of the screen.
   

2. Click System Preferences.
   

3. Click Energy Saver.
   

4. Click the slider and move it to Never, which is all the way to the right.
   

5. Your Mac screen will now stay on all the time, unless you manually select Sleep from the Apple menu.
   

How to Keep Your Mac Screen On During Important Tasks

Having your Mac screen shut off during an important task just because you haven’t touched your keyboard or mouse in a while can be annoying, but completely turning off sleep mode results in more power use and excessive wear and tear on your system. If you just want to make sure your Mac screen doesn’t turn off during important tasks, you can do so using a terminal command.

Here’s how to keep your Mac screen on using a terminal command:

1. Open the macOS Terminal app.
   

   Type Terminal into Spotlight, or open it in the Finder via Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

2. Type caffeinate.
   

3. Press Enter.
   

4. Your Mac screen will stay as long as the Terminal window remains open.
   

5. To disable caffeinated mode, click Terminate on the alert that appears when you attempt to close the Terminal window.
   

6. After successfully closing the Terminal window, your Mac will once again enter sleep mode according to your Energy Saver settings.
   

Why Does My Mac Automatically Go to Sleep?

Your Mac automatically goes to sleep to save power for both environmental and cost-saving reasons. The automatic sleep timer is on by default, so your Mac will automatically go to sleep if it doesn’t receive any inputs for a few minutes unless you change your Energy Saver settings. Sleep Mode is supposed to be disabled whenever you’re watching or listening to media, but that isn’t always the case.

If you find that your Mac automatically goes to sleep when you’re watching movies or listening to music, then you may want to use the method described above to increase the amount of time before sleep mode engages or turn the automatic sleep feature altogether.

Can You Schedule a Mac to Sleep Automatically?

While your Mac is designed to sleep automatically whenever you aren’t using it, you can also schedule your Mac to automatically sleep at specific intervals if you like. This is useful if you want to fully disable the automatic sleep feature but still have the Mac enter sleep mode during times of the day when you normally aren’t using it, like when you’re sleeping at night.

Here’s how to schedule your Mac to sleep automatically:

1. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner, and select Preferences.
   

2. Click Energy Saver.
   

3. Click Schedule.
   

4. Click the Sleep check box.
   

5. Click Every Day, and select Weekdays, Weekends, Every Day, or a specific day of the week.
   

6. Click 12:00 AM and select the time you want your Mac to enter sleep mode.
   

7. Your Mac will now sleep automatically at the time and day or days you selected.