How to make your google home quieter at night

Hush your speaker with this scheduling setting.

Alina Bradford has been writing how-tos, tech articles and more for almost two decades. She currently writes for CNET’s Smart Home Section, MTVNews’ tech section and for Live Science’s reference section. Follow her on Twitter.

Late at night, or after the baby’s gone down for a nap, a loud response from your Google Home Hub speaker can disturb the peace. However, you can have the Google Home Hub ($66 at Walmart) reply to your commands more quietly during certain parts of the day, automatically.

This whisper feature, called Night Mode, can be useful whenever you need to keep the volume down. Here’s how to turn it on and use it.

Setting up Night Mode

To make your Google Home Hub quiet, open the Google Home app and scroll down on the home page to find your speaker. Tap on it and then tap the gear icon in the upper right. Next, tap on Night Mode and toggle on Enable Night Mode.

A schedule will pop up after switching the toggle. Tap to choose the days and times you need a quieter hub. Then, go down to the bottom of the screen and drag the volume bar to the left to adjust just how quiet you want your hub to be. These settings work for all Google Home speakers.

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Do not disturb

You can also turn off notifications from your Home Hub during your scheduled quiet times. From the Night Mode screen go down to Do Not Disturb and toggle it on.

Once activated, reminders, broadcast messages and other types of notifications won’t be announced through the hub. If you need to keep up with reminders, you may want to check your Google Calendar app on your phone, instead.

Alarms and timers will still go off, even in Do No Disturb mode, so beware. They will be quieter, though, if you have Night Mode turned on.

Josh Hendrickson is the Editor-in-Chief of Review Geek. He has worked in IT for nearly a decade, including four years spent repairing and servicing computers for Microsoft. He’s also a smarthome enthusiast who built his own smart mirror with just a frame, some electronics, a Raspberry Pi, and open-source code. Read more.

The night has come; you’re winding down. “Hey Google, turn off all the lights” you whisper, and then regret sets in as your Google Home yells confirmation, waking everyone up. Here’s how to make Google speak quietly at night.

You may have experienced this more times than you care to admit. Everyone is asleep, and you’re ready for bed too. You tell your Google Home or Nest Hub to turn off the lights, and it yells, seemingly at the top of its digital lungs, a confirmation that it will turn off the lights. It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can either turn on Night Mode for each Google Home or Nest Hub device you own to make them speak softer and dim the lights or use grouping to prevent the devices from speaking altogether.

Enable Night Mode for a Quiet Night

If you need your Google Homes to speak softly during certain hours, Night Mode is the feature for you. You can set Night Mode to turn on and off automatically with a schedule, adjust the maximum volume, and even the maximum brightness of your Google Home’s built-in LEDs.

The downside is, you have to enable and configure Night Mode for every Google Home device you own. So if you miss one, you’ll find out the hard way the next time you use it and expect a quiet response.

To turn on Night Mode, open the Google Home app, then tap on the Google Home device you want to adjust. Then tap the gear in the top right corner.

Scroll down and tap on Night Mode.

Toggle Night Mode on, and then choose the settings you’d like, including the volume slider. Don’t forget to tap each day you want Night Mode to work for (you can leave it off on weekends for instance). Google Home devices, which have LED lights on top of the speaker, will have an additional LED dimming slider. Nest Hub devices won’t have this option.

Group Devices in Rooms for a Quiet Chime

Another way to avoid a loud response is to group (called Rooms) your Google Home or Nest Hub device in the same room as your lights. When you tell a Google Home to turn off lights in the same room as the voice assistant, it will chime softly instead of replying with a wordy verbal confirmation.

Plus, when a Google Home is in the same room as smart light (for instance the living room), you can say, “Hey Google, turn off the lights” instead of “turn off the living room lights.” It saves you a few words, so you benefit all around.

If your Google Home or smart lights aren’t already in groups, open your Google Home app and select the device you want to add to a room. Then tap on the “Add to a room” option.

Then follow the prompts to choose the room you’d like to add the device too. Do this for all your smart devices and Google Homes. You’ll benefit right away from both quieter chimes and easier to use voice commands.

If you’re using an Amazon Echo instead, try Whisper Mode for a quieter night-time experience.

Night Mode keeps the Google Home from blurting out loud responses late at night. Here’s how to set it up.

Taylor Martin has covered technology online for over six years. He has reviewed smartphones for Pocketnow and Android Authority and loves building stuff on his YouTube channel, MOD. He has a dangerous obsession with coffee and is afraid of free time.

It’s not a great feeling to whisper to your Google Home ($54 at Walmart) in the dead of night to turn off the lights, only for it to scream back to you at full volume, “OK, turning off the office corner.”

This has happened to me the last three nights in a row. (Clearly, I never learn.)

That said, the Google Home has a relatively new feature that can keep it from waking up the neighborhood when you just want to turn off the lights before bed. It’s called Night Mode and can be customized to work at specific times on select days.

Here’s how to enable and set up Night Mode.

Night Mode on Google Home

The Google Home’s Night Mode helps reduce the volume of its responses during times that you specify. It can also limit the brightness of the LEDs on top of the speakers.

To enable Night Mode:

• Open the Google Home app on Android or iOS.
• Tap the Devices button (shaped like a TV and speakers) in the top right corner of the app or tap the hamburger button in the top left corner and select Devices from the menu.
• Tap the three buttons in the top right corner of the card for the speaker you want to enable Night Mode on. Select Settings.
• Scroll down and tap Night Mode.
• Tap the toggle to the right of Enable night mode.

Once Night Mode is enabled, you’ll see several settings that you can customize. Tap the pencil icon to the right of From and To to adjust the times that Night Mode automatically turns on each day.

If you don’t want Night Mode to run every day, just tap on one of the days to deselect it.

You can also set Do Not Disturb to turn on and off with Night Mode by tapping the toggle. Unfortunately, you can’t have Do Not Disturb on a separate schedule — it’s either on, off or on the same schedule as Night Mode.

Finally, at the very bottom, there are two sliders. One adjusts the brightness of the LEDs on top of the speaker, the other adjusts the maximum volume of the speaker when Night Mode is enabled.

During those hours, the volume will change to what you set the maximum to (unless it was already lower). This affects both the Google Home’s spoken responses and its music streaming. However, if during those hours you want the volume higher, you can still ask the Google Home to adjust the volume or do it manually by using the touch controls on top of the speaker. The volume will stay at the new level until you change it again or until Night Mode is disabled or reenabled.

The Google Home Max in our living room has been great for settling arguments ranging from the correct pronunciation of ciabatta to when some of our favorite shows are going to return from their winter hiatus, but it’s loud. Very loud.

I love having the volume turned up so we can yell questions (and hear answers) from the nearby kitchen, but at night when we’re sitting on the couch in front of that Max it’s responses can be a little too much.

We already have the volume permanently set at 50%, but this week a CNET article pointed out a feature that works even better: Night Mode. I somehow overlooked Night Mode in the settings for the speaker, but it’s fantastic.

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With it, you can specify specific times where you want the volume on the speaker to be lower. That way, I can set a “Night Mode” to kick in around 9pm, when we’re typically in front of the TV (and that speaker) and go back to normal around 7am when we’re typically getting ready for the day.

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For me, the bonus here is that I don’t have to manually tell Google to quiet down only to realize she’s too quiet to hear the next day when I ask a question from far away. The feature can also come in handy if your speaker happens to be located next to your baby’s room and you don’t want to risk an accidental late-night wake-up, or if you tend to want to ask Google questions after other people in your household have headed to bed for the night.

To get to it, open the Home app and then click on the speaker you’d like to set a night mode on. From the speaker’s page, tap the gear icon in the top right corner, and then select “Night Mode” from the next age of options. Toggle the feature on to bring up a calendar where you can schedule days and times for Google to be quieter than usual. You can set the max volume for the speaker to the perfect setting for you, and also adjust the brightness of your device’s LCD, if you happen to be using a Google Home Hub.

Also on this page, you’ll see a “Do Not Disturb” feature. That will block sounds from reminders, broadcast messages, and other notifications on the speaker while Night Mode is enabled. Toggle that on/off depending on your preference.

Once you have it set up, your Google Home will adjust its volume based on your personal preference, so you don’t have to handle things manually anymore, or in my case, get startled by the loudspeaker right beside your head.

Sarah Basford

There’s nothing worse than asking your Google Home a simple, innocent question in the morning or late at night only for it to yell at you at top volume. Because I’ve been hurt too many times, I now make sure to set the volume to 10 or 20 per cent before I ever ask it to tell me today’s weather or how bad the traffic is. Apparently, there’s been an even better fix for this all along.

Everything Your Google Home Can Do Is Now Listed On One Incredibly Useful Website

If you picked up a Google Home recently, you may be wondering what it’s good for besides checking the weather and playing music. Google’s smart speakers may not boast as many third-party skills as Amazon’s Alexa, but there’s still a ton you can do.

Here’s how you do it

First up, you’ll need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi as your Google Home device and then open the Google Home app. Then head to ‘Home’ within the app and select the settings button. Head to Night Mode and flick that sweet feature on.

Once you’ve got that on, you just need to edit it so it knows what times to be quiet and how quiet it needs to be. You can also edit your smart light’s dimness so once it hits a certain hour, your lights will be less irritating.

Welcome to your new, Google Home yelling-free life. You can read more detailed instructions over on Google’s blog.

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Your plan is to stay up, but if your parents find out, you could be grounded until the end of time. What to do? If you follow these steps then you can pull it off, without your parents knowing!

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Medical Disclaimer

The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. You should always contact your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional before starting, changing, or stopping any kind of health treatment.

To stay up all night without getting noticed by your parents, prepare by bringing supplies to your room, like video games, books, snacks, and drinks. Next, pretend to go to bed at your normal bedtime, and don’t make any noise until you’re sure your parents have fallen asleep. Once they’re asleep, keep your electronics on a low volume, and make sure there aren’t too many lights coming from your room. Remember that your parents might get up to use the bathroom during the night, so keep listening for sounds of doors opening and closing. To learn some fun ways to entertain yourself all night, keep reading!

The two biggest challenges that new puppy owners face are almost always the same: how to get a puppy to sleep and housebreaking.

But we’ve put together a list of strategies for how to get a puppy to sleep, utilizing information from dog behavioral studies, advice from veterinarians and dog trainers, and the experiences of new puppy owners just like you!

Normal Puppy Sleeping Habits

Puppies often struggle to sleep through the night.

Much like adult infants, it is difficult for puppies to make the transition from the comfort, warmth, sounds, and movement of being surrounded at all times by his mother and siblings in their den.

If your new puppy won’t sleep, whines and barks all night long, you’re not alone.

One survey showed that about 70% of puppies who sleep alone whine for a period before settling.

They also tend to wake frequently throughout the night and whine again.

A puppy whining at night is basically the only method of communication he has.

Whether they’re hungry, cold, or hurt, a puppy crying at night is looking for some sort of comfort.

What to Do?

So what’s the number one way to comfort a sleepy puppy whining at night?

Research by several animal behaviorists showed that whining and waking is considerably lessened or eliminated completely by introducing another puppy from the same litter.

Now, this isn’t possible for most of us who bring home a new puppy.

Therefore, if your puppy won’t sleep, we have to turn to alternate ideas to comfort our solo pooches.

Should Your Puppy Sleep in Bed With You?

Many people are tempted to let their sleepy puppy simply sleep in bed with them.

But there are a lot of reasons this is a pretty bad idea.

First of all, puppies can’t hold their bladder for very long, and they don’t know to wake you for a potty break.

So if you don’t want to wash your bedsheets every day for a couple of months, I don’t recommend letting your little pupper snuggle to sleep in bed with you at night.

Second, teething puppies chew on EVERYTHING – including your pillow and blankets in the middle of the night.

Preparing for Life as an Adult

Lastly, if your puppy gets used to sleeping in bed with you at night, she will never want to stop.

So any time you go on vacation without her, she could have separation anxiety.

Or what if you are sick and want the bed to yourself?

And vice versa – you don’t want a sick adult dog in your bed, do you?

If you don’t want your puppy dog sleeping in bed with you for the rest of his/her life, learn how to get a puppy to sleep alone right from the start.

The good news is that the same studies that observed puppy sleeping habits noticed that in most cases, the transitional period to sleeping comfortably in a new environment only lasted about a week.

Reasons for Puppy Whining at Night

If you learn why your puppy wakes up frequently or won’t sleep comfortably at night, you have a better chance of getting some good sleep sooner.

Consider these reasons:

• needs to go potty
• wants to play
• is cold
• isn’t used to silence
• is lonely
• is in a strange environment with new smells.

Browse our list below of tips on how to get a puppy to sleep at night, which addresses each of these reasons a puppy won’t sleep.

How to Get a Puppy to Sleep at Night

1. Ensure you have the proper sleep space: a warm, soft bed near your own sleep space that is ok to be soiled in the beginning.
2. Try to get puppy sleeping in crate. Studies have shown that puppies who sleep in a crate adjust to quiet sleeping more quickly than those that don’t. They also have less middle-of-the-night potty accidents.
3. Offer an item of your recently worn clothing or a blanket that was scented from their litter/mother.
4. Use a ticking clock wrapped in a blanket to simulate a littermate/mother’s heartbeat. Or use a sound machine to create a more realistic den environment for the pup.
5. Have a little exercise before bed – then start the bedtime routine by winding down and snuggling.
6. Make sure he gets plenty of mental stimulation throughout day. If your puppy sleeps all day, he won’t want to sleep at night!
7. Feed them at least 3 hours before bedtime – any closer to bedtime and they will need to wake to relieve themselves.
8. Offer a potty break just before bed.
9. For the first two weeks, if you hear your puppy barking at night, take him/her out for a quick potty break.*
10. If your puppy whines and has already had a recent potty break, don’t react immediately after the first cry. Wait a few moments to see if the puppy will settle back to sleep – or at least to avoid training them to whimper until they get your attention.
11. Leave a safe chew toy in their bed to occupy their teething habits if they wake in the middle of the night with gum irritation. Good sleeping puppy toys include Kongs and Nylabone teething treats.

*A Note on Potty Breaks

Puppies typically cannot hold their bladder for more than a few hours at a time.

With puppies around 8 weeks old, my experience has been they can sleep 4–5 hours (3–4 hours for tiny breeds.) before needing a potty break.

So for the first few weeks, a puppy whining at night almost always needs a potty break.

Potty Not Play

I highly recommend treating the middle-of-the-night potty break as a somber occasion.

Your pup might be wide awake and ready to romp, but it’s best for both of you if you don’t try to match his energy with a quick playtime.

Otherwise, your puppy will start right back over with whining and crying the minute you leave him back in bed.

Plus, if you’re a light sleeper like I am, you’ll never get yourself back to sleep, either.

Instead, don’t play or even talk to your pup.

Simply take him to his potty area and walk in slow pacing steps in circles if you have to in order to encourage him to wander off the porch to do his business.

Then it’s right back to bed.

For more on potty training, see out Potty Training Schedule.

Puppy Sleep Schedule

Keep in mind that a full night’s sleep for your puppy might include waking at 6am.

You may prefer an 8 a.m. wake-up call, but your puppy might have other ideas.

I hope this guide to how to get a puppy to sleep helps your family get some good sleep soon!

Let us know which tips work best for you!

You may also be interested in taking a look at our guide to quiet dog breeds!

Liz London is a certified dog trainer through the Certifying Council of Professional Dog Trainers (CPDT-KA) & the Karen Pryor Academy (Dog Trainer Foundations Certification) with regular continuing education courses from the top animal trainers from all over the world. She has trained zoo animals, search & rescue canines, gundogs, and helped people raise happy, healthy, and well-behaved canine companions for over ten years.

Trouble sleeping? Here’s how you can use Google Home as an ambient noise generator.

Taylor Martin has covered technology online for over six years. He has reviewed smartphones for Pocketnow and Android Authority and loves building stuff on his YouTube channel, MOD. He has a dangerous obsession with coffee and is afraid of free time.

Despite all it can do, first and foremost, Google Home ($54 at Walmart) is still a speaker. It specializes in streaming music, playing your favorite podcasts and keeping you up to date on what’s happening in the world. But it can also help you relax or fall asleep with ambient sounds.

Here is how you can turn your Google Home into a sound machine.

‘OK, Google, help me relax.’

Like Alexa, it’s very simple to play ambient sounds or white noise with Google Home. You can specifically request certain sounds through Google Play Music, Spotify or YouTube Music.

However, Google Home has a selection of ambient sounds built-in, as well. To play one of them at random, just say, “OK, Google, help me relax.” Here are some other things you can say:

• “OK, Google, play ambient noise.”
• “OK, Google, play forest sounds.”
• “OK, Google, play white noise.”
• “OK, Google, what other ambient sounds do you know?”

Sadly, there is no sleep timer function on Google Home yet. The dedicated support page for relaxing with Google Home says you can set a specific duration for ambient sounds to play. However, in our experience, if you say something like, “Hey, Google, play river sounds for two hours,” it doesn’t play one of the built-in ambient sounds. Instead, it locates and plays a two-hour river soundtrack or playlist from Spotify or Google Play Music, depending on which you have set as your default.

That said, when you request any of the in-built ambient sounds, they will play for one hour, if you do not manually stop them sooner.

The full list of baked-in sounds you can play with Google Home are:

• Babbling brook
• Country night
• Fireplace
• Forest
• Nature
• Ocean
• Oscillating fan
• Outdoor
• Rain
• Relaxing
• River
• Running water
• Thunderstorm
• Water
• White noise

If you ask for something not on this list, such as coffee shop sounds or city sounds, it will try to locate and play the request using your default music streaming service. These will not automatically turn off after one hour, but will stop playing after the track or playlist has finished.

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 32 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time.

This article has been viewed 265,067 times.

Are people always telling you to be quiet? Do you often speak without thinking and end up regretting what you’ve said? Do you just feel like there’s too much noise in your head and want to know how to turn it off? Well, the good news is that anyone at all can be quiet. It just takes time and patience. If you want to know how to be quiet, just follow along.

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To work on being more quiet in conversations, try focusing your energy on listening rather than on talking. When you do speak, ask questions to encourage the speaker to elaborate, rather than interrupting or giving your opinion. If being quiet is difficult, try paying attention to your breathing while others are speaking. It can also be helpful to count to 10 each time you want to say something to give yourself time to reflect on whether it really needs to be said. For more on embracing silence in your daily life, read on.

If counting sheep and melatonin have failed, Google might be able to help.

Shelby Brown (she/her/hers) is a writer for CNET’s services and software team. She covers tips and tricks for apps and devices, as well as Apple Arcade news.

Your Google Home ($54 at Walmart) or Google Nest smart speaker can help you sleep like a baby , whether you had one cup of coffee too many, or you can’t seem to quiet your mind. The device is helpful for scheduling your day , but it’s also handy for unwinding, too.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, start with, “Hey, Google, I can’t sleep .” It’ll respond with a few options — nature sounds, deep breathing, counting sheep, ambient music or sleepy playlists to help you fall asleep. Unfortunately, it doesn’t yet have a cure for nightmares.

Read more

• Which Google Home speaker should you buy?
• Use an Amazon Echo to get the best sleep of your life

Here are some things you can say to your Google Home or Google Nest to get assistance in getting sleepy.

Ask Google to play relaxing music

Google will find a playlist of ambient music on YouTube Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora or Deezer if you have an account (if not, all these services all have free options). If you like the playlist, open the music app to save it. You can link your media accounts when you set up your speaker, or at any time using the Google Home app.

Google can play a podcast

Listening to a podcast is one of my favorite ways to fall asleep when my mind just won’t shut off. Granted, if you just ask Google to play a podcast, it’ll pick a few at random, which may not interest you. But you can specify what you want to listen to. My personal favorite is the Sleep With Me podcast. It’s just interesting enough to distract your mind, and it’s got just the right amount of rambling to bore you. My Google Home worked best with the Google Podcasts app for me.

You can’t set a sleep timer vocally yet, but just tap the moon icon after you start an episode. You can choose for the podcast to stop after 5 minutes, 105 minutes or at the end of the episode. The app is packed with podcasts to help you sleep like Bedtime Stories for Nobody, the Sleep Meditation Podcast, One Third of Life, Tracks to Relax and Sleep Whispers.

Who doesn’t love relaxing nature sounds?

You can make the request a few times until you settle on the sound you like. Some of the options I came across were rain, a babbling brook, crickets and chirping birds. Be careful with the water noises at night, though, unless you want a bathroom break too! The Google Home or Nest can also play a nature sounds playlist from your linked music apps.

Tim Clayton – Corbis/Getty Images

‘Hey, Google, tell me a bedtime story’

I’m a fan of falling asleep to podcasts or TV shows. If your little one is having a hard time catching some z’s, try the Google Home’s bedtime story option. The tales are kid-focused but could provide some background noise for kids of any age to drift off to. Google picks out short stories from Google Play Books and Storynory, so make sure you have those apps installed. You can sort through 3- to 10-minute fairy tales, quirky stories or shorts about popular TV characters like Dora the Explorer.

Yes, Google can sing you a lullaby

Another option to help kids get ready for bed is asking Google to sing or play a lullaby. You’ll find classics like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, a German Cradle Song and Rock-a-bye Baby with a reworked (less violent) ending.

Different times call for different ringtone volumes. When you’re at work or school, you need your phone to be quiet so it doesn’t make a disturbance—but when you’re at home or out and about, the volume should be turned back up so you don’t miss any important notifications.

Some phones let you set volume levels on a schedule, but most don’t. You could use Tasker to solve this issue, but that would be more trouble than it’s worth. Luckily, developer Yogesh Dama has come up with a super simple app that will automatically change your volume levels based on the time of day and day of the week.

Step 1: Install Volume Scheduler

To get this one going, start by installing Dama’s free app, which is called Volume Scheduler.

Step 2: Set Up a Volume Profile

Next up, make sure Volume Scheduler is enabled by turning on the switch at the top of the app’s main menu. From here, you’ll notice two preset volume profiles named Office and Home. You could use the + button at the bottom of the screen to create your own profile from scratch, but to make things easier, just tap one of the presets, then select “Edit” from the menu to make it your own.

From here, you can rename the profile if you’d like, but make sure to tap “Volume Profile” to adjust the individual volume levels for when this profile is active. Beyond that, you can set a custom ringtone and notification sound for this profile using the other two entries in the Profile Settings category.

Next, scroll down a bit and use the options in the Schedule Settings section to choose the time when this volume profile will become active, as well as the days of the week.

Beyond that, take note of the “Show popup and ask before applying on schedule time” option. With this enabled, your volume levels won’t change automatically, and instead, you’ll see a popup asking if you’d like to set the volume. So to make things as seamless as possible, I’d recommend disabling this option, which will cause the volume levels to be applied automatically during your scheduled hours.

When you’re done there, back out to the main menu, then repeat this same process for the other volume profile. In the end, you should have one profile that lowers your volume levels during work or school hours, then a second profile that raises your volume levels when you’re at home.

Step 3: Never Adjust Volume Levels Again

From now on, you can stop manually adjusting your volume levels, because Volume Scheduler will take care of that for you. When the time comes, all of your volume levels will automatically be set to the values you chose in Step 2, so there’s no need to worry about disturbing your coworkers anymore.

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Cameron Summerson is ex-Editor-in-Chief of Review Geek and served as an Editorial Advisor for How-To Geek and LifeSavvy. He covered technology for a decade and wrote over 4,000 articles and hundreds of product reviews in that time. He’s been published in print magazines and quoted as a smartphone expert in the New York Times. Read more.

Do Not Disturb mode on Android can be handy if you’re in a meeting, at a movie, or anywhere else where your phone needs to not be a distraction for a little while, but the real value is found in Do Not Disturb’s automatic rules. Basically, you can tell Android when not to bother you—like at night while you’re sleeping, for example—as well as who can bother you if they must. It’s pretty brilliant and only takes a few minutes to get set up.

Before we get into the details here, it’s worth mentioning that the process and verbiage may vary slightly depending on what device you’re using. For example, Samsung does things differently than LG, which does things differently from stock Android. Fun. But don’t stress—I’ll do my best to make sense of it all for each of the popular manufacturers and versions of Android (Stock Android, Samsung, LG, and Huawei). So, let’s do this thing.

This journey starts in the same place for all devices: Settings. You can get there by pulling down the notification shade and tapping the cog icon. At least that’s universal.

Once you’re in Settings, however, things can get complicated, and you may have to dig around a little bit to find exactly what you’re looking for.

• On Nexus and other stock-like devices, jump into the “Sound & notification” menu, then “Do not disturb.”
• On Galaxy devices, scroll down until you see “Do Not Disturb.”

• On LG devices, swipe over to the “Sound & Notification” tab, then down to “Do not disturb.”
• On Huawei devices, make sure you’re on the “All” tab, then scroll down to “Do not disturb.”

Once in the Do Not Disturb menu, you’ll be looking for some sort of “schedule” option:

• On Nexus and other stock-like devices, tap on “Automatic rules.”
• On Galaxy devices, slide the “Turn on as scheduled” toggle.

• On LG devices, tap “Schedule.”
• On Huawei devices, slide the “Scheduled” toggle.

From there, you can start to customize your Do Not Disturb schedule, including days and times, as well as who and what can get through.

For example, I have my phones set to automatically silence from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. I allow Priority notifications to come through, which I personally define as Reminders, Events, and messages or calls from starred contacts only. I also allow repeat callers to come through—just in case.

You can define these settings in the following menus:

• On Nexus and other stock-like devices, select “Priority only allows” from the parent Do Not Disturb menu.
• On Galaxy devices, tap on “Allow exceptions” in the Do Not Disturb menu.

• On LG devices, choose “Select priorities” under the “Advanced” section of the Do Not Disturb menu.
• On Huawei devices, scroll down to the “Priority interruptions” section of the Do Not Disturb menu.

From there, the settings should be very similar. You can define which notifications to allow through, as well as which contacts the rules don’t apply to.

Automatic Do Not Disturb settings are very useful for those who do things on a regular schedule (you know, like sleep), because you don’t have to think about it. Your phone will automatically silence when it’s supposed to, and the people who are most important to you can still get through if you want. Pretty snazzy.

In this Article

There isn’t a drug you can take for tinnitus. Because it’s a symptom and not a disease, your doctor will work with you to diagnose the underlying problem. They’ll ask about your symptoms, examine your ears, and probably run some tests. That will help them come up with a plan and decide on your treatment.

If a drug you’re taking is the trigger, they may tell you to stop taking it or change it to another one. Never stop taking a medication on your own. Always talk to your doctor first.

If a health condition like high blood pressure is the cause, your doctor will work with you to treat it. If an ear or sinus infection or allergies is to blame, the doctor will treat the underlying problem. The ringing should go away when the illness does.

If the problem is too much earwax, your doctor will remove the buildup gently. Don’t use cotton swabs to try to do it yourself.

In some cases, you might not be able to find a cause. Your doctor will work with you to find ways to ease the sound or help you cope with it.

Those options might include:

Hearing aids: These gadgets can help when you have both hearing loss and tinnitus. They strengthen the sounds you need to hear. That makes the ringing stand out less.

Sound maskers: These machines create constant low-level white noise that helps block out the ringing. You can use bedside devices at night to help you sleep. You can also wear maskers in or behind your ear all the time.

Retraining therapy: You can wear a device that masks ringing with tonal music, gradually training you to ignore the sound. This is usually linked with counseling.

Relaxation techniques: Stress can make tinnitus worse. Find ways that help you manage anxiety like deep breathing, exercise, and biofeedback.

Medicines: There aren’t drugs that specifically treat tinnitus. But sometimes anxiety medicine helps. Ask your doctor if it might be right for you.

Other Lifestyle Changes

Take these steps to ease the ringing or keep it from getting worse.

Avoid loud noises: If you can’t stay away from loud events like concerts, sporting events, or noisy machinery, at least protect your hearing. Wear earplugs or earmuffs. If you use headphones to listen to music, keep the sound turned down low.

Catch some ZZZs: When you’re tired, the ringing could seem worse. Aim for 8 hours of sleep each night. Use a white noise machine in your bedroom, or ask your doctor for other tips to fight fatigue.

Watch caffeine: Skip your daily coffee, soda, or energy drink to see if the ringing eases up. Doctors often say caffeine can make tinnitus worse. But at least one study has found that women who drank more caffeine were less likely to hear ringing. See what works for you.

Stop smoking: The nicotine in cigarettes and other products can affect the blood vessels that move oxygen to your ears. It can also increase your blood pressure.

Cut back on booze: An after-work cocktail can send your blood pressure up. That might make you notice the ringing more. Cut back or stop. See if that helps.

Show Sources

Mayo Clinic: “Tinnitus: Diagnosis,” “Tinnitus: Lifestyle and home remedies,” “Tinnitus: Overview,” “Tinnitus: Symptoms and causes,” “Tinnitus: Treatment.”

American Tinnitus Association: “Causes.”

UpToDate: “Patient education: Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) (Beyond the Basics).”

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: “Tinnitus.”

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders: “Tinnitus.”

Cleveland Clinic: “Cerumen Impaction.”

American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery: “Tinnitus.”

University of Maryland Medical Center: “Tinnitus.”

Vestibular Disorders Association: “Dietary Considerations.”

American Hearing Research Foundation: “Tinnitus.”

The American Journal of Medicine: “A Prospective Study of Caffeine Intake and Risk of Incident Tinnitus.”

Better Health Channel, Victoria State Government: “Tinnitus.”

When your desktop computer sounds like a jet taking off, there are a couple of likely culprits: fans and the hard disk. These components are more likely to be loud if they’re older, when wear and tear and dust settles in.

If your laptop is loud, it’s best to contact the manufacturer, as the solutions for laptops can be different.

Diagnosing the noise

The first step to fixing excess noise is to pinpoint the issue. It’s likely you have a problem with your fans or the hard drive.

The two biggest culprits for excess noise in computers are fans and the hard disk. Fans are used to move the heat produced by the processor, motherboard, and graphics card out of the computer. If the fans are loose, too small, or not powerful enough, they can create noise. Hard disks can also make noise as the platters spin and the head seeks data. Loud noise is generally a very bad sign and should be dealt with immediately.

Computers can also make noise if any components have come loose and are vibrating against the frame of the computer. If the computer is in the wrong area, any noise from inside the computer can become amplified.

As computers age, they acquire dust, pet hair, and lint, which can block fans from running efficiently. Parts can also come loose, or just wear out, increasing vibrations and noise.

If you have a particularly powerful computer, there will be more fans inside the case and some components, such as the graphics card will have their own fans. More fans mean more noise, especially as those fans get older

How to make your computer quieter

There are three levels of steps you can take to quiet your computer, depending on what part is making the noise.

First level

Make sure there are rubber feet on the bottom of the computer and that they are resting on a flat surface. If the rubber feet are missing, you can get replacements, or put the computer on a piece of carpet or another soft surface. If the room is warm or the computer is otherwise overheating, there are cooling pads that can help cool the computer and absorb some of the sound and vibrations. Find out more about keeping your computer cool with these ten tips.

Sometimes it helps to move the computer under the desk or into a more closed location to muffle the noise. This can be tricky because you don’t want to increase the insulation around the computer, which will cause the fans to run longer and harder. If the fans are the source of the noise, then this will aggravate the problem. If you move the computer, make sure there’s at least two inches of empty space on all sides of the computer for cooling.

Second level

If the easy solutions didn’t help the situation, you’ll need to dive deeper. Take the back off your computer and check all the attachments; screws, gaskets, and grommets. If there are any screws loose, tighten them. Replace any worn or missing gaskets and grommets.

While you have the back off your computer, use a soft brush and a can of compressed air to blow the dust out of the computer. Don’t force the compressed air into the fans, it can damage them. Carefully blow the air around the fans.

If the source of the noise is the hard disk, consider upgrading to a solid state drive (SSD). If your hard drive is making anything more than occasional clicks, there’s a good chance that the hardware is failing. It’s important to move your data before the drive fails, or it could be unrecoverable. Find out more about the benefits of an SSD.

Third level

If the steps above don’t help, you’ll need to get serious. Replace your old fans with large new fans. You must know the physical size of the fans you currently have to order new fans that are the same size. This ensures that they will fit into the space necessary. Whenever possible, order a fan that will move more air and has a lower decibel rating.

If your power supply is overheating, likely because it can’t handle the additional load of upgraded components, consider a new power supply with a fan to help with cooling.

You can also add sound insulation to your computer. You must be very careful about this, however, as adding insulation can also result in more heat trapped, causing the fans to work harder.

© 2017 Micron Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Information, products, and/or specifications are subject to change without notice. Neither Crucial nor Micron Technology, Inc. is responsible for omissions or errors in typography or photography. Micron, the Micron logo, Crucial, and the Crucial logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micron Technology, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Whether you’re unwrapping some brand new Google Nest † smart speakers or revisiting your strained relationship with Google Assistant, we’ve got your back. Learn how to enhance your smart home with this guide.

Getting to know Google Nest products

“Hey Google, what are you?”

What is Google Home?

Folks often use the terms “Google Home” and “Google Assistant” interchangeably. But they’re actually two distinct products from Google. (Thankfully, Google replaced the Google Home smart speaker with the less-confusing Nest Audio.) We totally get it. Google Home is a lot easier to say (or type) than Google Assistant. For the sake of simplicity, here’s how we’ll describe each product from here on out:

• Google Home is a mobile app for controlling smart home devices that work with Google Assistant. It works a lot like the Apple Home app or the Amazon Alexa app.
• Google Assistant is voice control software like Amazon Alexa and Siri.

Think of Google Assistant as the brains and voice, while the mobile app is the body. Google Home app is mostly a convenient interface, and the smart speaker just helps Google Assistant talk to you.

Because Google Assistant is the real mastermind behind every Google smart home device, we’re going to focus our efforts on helping you learn what it can do.

Whether you need a digital helper or a fun way to keep the kids busy, we think Google Assistant is a worthy rival to Amazon’s Alexa as one of the best smart home hubs.

Google’s latest products use the Nest name to reduce confusion (Nest Audio instead of Google Home), but Google Home Mini speakers are still sold.

How does Google Assistant work?

If you have a compatible device (phone, speaker, etc.), you can get Google Assistant’s attention by saying one of two wake words: “OK Google” or “Hey Google.” Then, you make a request or ask a question.

Google Assistant quickly deciphers your vocal instructions using the same technology that powers Google’s outstanding search engine. The reaction time is so fast that you’ll usually get an answer within a few seconds.

If you ask a question, the Assistant gives you a brief answer and sometimes sends the top search result to your phone so that you can learn more.

Google Assistant doesn’t just answer questions. It works with oodles of services so you can check the traffic for your commute and squeeze in a quick yoga workout before you head to work.

You can get Google Assistant voice controls on hundreds of compatible devices like smartphones (even on an iPhone), tablets, smart speakers, smart displays, smart TVs, smartwatches, and cars with Android Auto.

By Jason Wooden, PhD | September 5, 2020

If you’re not careful, night time boredom can lead to sleep troubles from a racing mind or choosing activities that keep you up past your bedtime. Fortunately, there are plenty of sleep friendly ways to pass the time ranging from quiet music to journaling. Sleep experts say it’s also important to have a regular bedtime routine that prepares your body and mind for sleep.

In this article, we’ll talk about:

• Why it can come back to bite you
• Why it’s important to have a great bedtime routine
• 17 Sleep friendly things you can do when bored
• Danger!: Night time rabbit holes to avoid
• Other things you can do

Bedtime boredom can come back to bite you

You’re not the only one wondering what to do when bored in bed at night.

We’ve all been there at one time or another.

Laying in bed wide awake wondering what you can do to occupy yourself…

Or maybe, you’ve just had a long day, you’re feeling restless and not ready for sleep, and looking for something to do to help you wind down.

Every night millions of people struggle with insomnia for various reasons.

Having a hard time falling asleep is one of the most common insomnia issues. Boredom is likely a factor for some, especially if it keeps you from going to sleep.

Your boredom can come back to bite you if it leaves your mind racing or you choose activities that keep you up past your bedtime. Either way you’re not getting the sleep you need when your body says it’s time to sleep.

So, what’s one to do to stay out of the “bored in bed” club?

Let’s take a look at what you SHOULD be doing and some sleep friendly activities to help you pass the time when you’re bored in bed at night.

Do you have a great bedtime routine?

If you want to avoid being bored in bed at night, the first thing is to make sure you have a sleep friendly bedtime routine.

What you do in the evening is an important part of sleep hygiene, the everyday habits that can make or break sleep. Ideally, your bedtime routine should help relax your body and mind in preparation for sleep.

Your body has a natural sleep-wake cycle that’s in tune with day and night. Generally, you should be going to sleep when your body says it time to sleep.

Restlessness can make it harder to fall asleep. You don’t want find yourself in bed saying, “I’m so bored…I’m so bored”, and then you find you can’t even get to sleep.

Stress and anxiety are well known enemies of sleep. If you get too wound up and anxious from boredom, you can find yourself too stressed to sleep.

And if you choose the wrong activity to pass the time, it can keep you up too late and stress your body out.

So, what should be doing instead?

Sleep experts say you should block off the last 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime for activities that will help you transition to sleep. Too often, people try to go sleep without giving themselves this wind down time.

Try listening to quiet music, light reading, or take a warm bath. The goal is to be relaxed, content, and ready for sleep.

While this may seem pretty simple, too many people break these basic sleep hygiene rules.