If playing soothing music has become part of your bedtime routine, Spotify offers a variety of features to support a peaceful transition to sleep. These options can help create a calm and comforting atmosphere as you drift into a restful slumber.
Good to know: seeing the “Spotify can’t play this right now” error? Check out how to fix it to return to streaming.
1. Sleep Timer
If, like me, you’re a fan of playing ambient sounds, such as soothing rain or ocean waves, you know these are usually very long audio tracks. To make sure the recording doesn’t continue to play all night long, I rely on the Spotify Sleep Timer to have the music turn itself off after a set amount of time.
Start playing your song in the Spotify app (Android, iOS). Tap on the Now Playing bar at the bottom to bring up the entire Now Playing screen.
Tap on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Swipe up to select Sleep Timer from the options.
Select the end of your listening session. It can be little as 5 minutes to as much as 1 hour. Alternatively, choose the End of track option.
For podcasts, the Sleep Timer icon is visible in the Now Playing screen next to the forward button.
Tip: learn how to create a podcast playlist in the Spotify app.
2. Crossfade, Gapless Playback and Automix
If you like listening to curated playlists or full albums when falling asleep, you may enjoy smoother transitions between tracks. I sometimes put on a playlist when I have trouble falling asleep as my partner is snoring next to me. However, the gaps of silence between songs are often long enough to break my relaxation. To counter their effect, I’ve enabled the crossfade effect. This prevents an abrupt decrease in volume when a track ends and tracks will overlap.
Open the Spotify app, and tap on your profile picture in the upper-left of the display.
Tap on Settings and privacy.
Next, select Playback.
In the Track transitions section, find the Crossfade section, and use the bar to adjust the length of fading and overlap between tracks.
If you want to remove the silence period between tracks completely, consider enabling Gapless playback. You’ll find this Spotify feature in Settings in the same Track transitions section.
There’s also the Automix option (below) that enables a seamless transition between songs on certain playlists. You can enable that as well.
In my experience, using Crossfade produces the best results. I haven’t experienced a notable difference with Gapless playback, but that may be because the songs in the playlists I listen to don’t have long silence periods at the end. I recommend experimenting with all three Spotify features and seeing what works best for you. Try using Gapless playback together with Automix or another combination when you stream music.
3. Link to Voice Assistants
If you’re all cozy in bed and don’t want to interrupt your relaxation by grabbing your phone again, but still want to hear a specific song, try asking your voice assistant to play it. I do this all the time with Google Assistant, as it saves me from the temptation of picking up my phone again and getting sucked back into browsing and scrolling again.
My requests sound like “Hey Google, play Max Richter – On the nature of daylight on Spotify” or “Hey Google, play a meditation music playlist on Spotify.” Google Assistant will play the music you requested.
For those who listen on Spotify via devices such as the Amazon Echo, you will need to link your music service to the Amazon Alexa app.
Open the Amazon Alexa app, and press Music & More.
Swipe down to the Link New Services section, and tap Spotify.
On the next page, and tap on the Enable To Use button.
Link your Spotify account by adding your username and password.
Now you should be able to make requests, such as “Alexa, play Hans Zimmer – Time on Spotify” or “Alexa, play sleep sounds on Spotify.”
Tip: check out how to share a collaborative playlist on Spotify.
4. Pinned Playlists
The albums/playlists or podcasts you listen to most often show up on Spotify’s main page at the top for easier access.
If you’re not seeing what you need, try another route. I prefer this Spotify feature, as it lets me pin my favorite music or podcast. I can easily get to it, regardless of whether I’ve been listening to it recently.
Open Spotify and press Library at the bottom.
Switch to the Playlist, Podcast, or Albums tab at the top to find what you want to pin. Long-press on it, and select Pin playlist from the menu at the bottom.
The playlist/podcast/album will show at the top in the Library section.
5. Smart Shuffle
Sometimes I have no inspiration when it comes to what I want to listen to. In cases such as this, I use Smart Shuffle. This is an option that generates recommendations based on your preferences within an already existing playlist. Basically, you’ll be listening to your playlist mixed with new songs.
Activating Smart Shuffle is pretty simple. Open a playlist on Spotify, and press the Shuffle button next to Play.
Select the Smart Shuffle option, then press the Play button to start listening.
Smart Shuffle is different from the standard Shuffle option, where Spotify just selects random songs from your playlists to play in no particular order.
6. AutoPlay
Sometimes I prefer to have audio playing in the background all night long (for instance, after watching a scary movie). If I am not in the mood to create a long playlist to last me through the dark hours, I can turn to AutoPlay. This Spotify feature, when enabled, will play similar content to what you were listening to after the playlist/album/song ends.
To enable the feature, go to Settings & privacy -> AutoPlay (in the Listening controls section).
Now you can fall asleep knowing that the music won’t stop playing.
FYI: not happy with Spotify anymore? Use it for free, or delete your Spotify account for good.
7. Spotify Connect
I have Spotify installed on multiple devices. This comes in handy if, let’s say, I’m using my main phone in bed and feel myself getting sleepy. I could start playing Spotify on the device I’m holding in my hands, but I prefer to listen to music on my tablet, as it has better speakers. If the tablet is sitting on the desk or bookshelf, it would mean that I have to get up and go get it, disrupting my sleepy mood.
Fortunately, I can easily switch to stream Spotify from one device to another. Open the Spotify app, and play your playlist/song/album, then press on the little device icon on the Now Playing bar.
Select the other device where you wish to play Spotify. Note, however, that this won’t work if you don’t have the Spotify app and are signed in to your account on the other device.
If after enabling these Spotify features, you’ve realized that having a good night’s sleep is important to you, consider cutting the time spent on your smartphone. Learn how to control your screen time on Android. While decreasing your smartphone usage is a good thing, not all technology is bad for you. For instance, check out the best mental health apps on Android.
Image credit: Unsplash. All screenshots by Alexandra Arici.
