An evening wind down session with ambient sound

Wind Down in Rise is a timed evening session: pick 5 to 30 minutes and a sound, and the screen fades from warm gold to black while the audio eases out. This page covers how it runs, every option and what it does not do.

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What Wind Down does

Wind Down is a timer for the last stretch of your evening. You choose a length from 5 to 30 minutes and one of five ambient sounds. Rise plays the sound on a loop while the screen darkens from warm gold to black, then fades the audio out near the end and shows a goodnight screen with the time your alarm is set for.

The built-in Clock app has a Timer that can play a sound when it ends, or stop whatever is playing with Stop Playing, and through Health, iPhone offers sleep schedules and Sleep Focus. None of them gives you an ambient sound, a screen that darkens with it and a fade at the end in one tap. Wind Down does, and it sits in the same app as your alarm, so the last screen you see at night shows the alarm time for the morning.

How it works in the app

1. Open Rise on Home in the evening. Under the main button you will see Wind Down with a moon icon. It is tappable from 5 pm until 4 am. In the daytime Home shows "Wind Down opens in the evening" instead.
2. On "How long do you want to wind down?", drag the slider. It moves in steps of 5 minutes.
3. Under Ambient sound, tap Fireplace, Space Ship, Storm, Waves or White Noise. Each one previews quietly for about 10 seconds. Fireplace is selected the first time you open the screen.
4. Tap Start Wind Down. Your length and sound are saved as the defaults for next time.
5. A ring counts the time down while the sound loops and the background moves from gold to black. Your screen stays awake while it runs.
6. In the last minute the sound fades. It is silent with 30 seconds left. At zero you feel a success tap, and the screen says Goodnight with "Alarm set for" and your alarm time. Tap Close.

You can pause with the pause button, which also pauses the sound. Once paused, End wind down appears. If you leave Rise or lock the phone during a session, the sound keeps playing and the time keeps counting. The countdown also shows as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island on iPhones that have one.

Every option

What needs Rise Pro

Wind Down is free for sessions up to 10 minutes. The 15 to 30 minute lengths are part of Rise Pro, and dragging the slider past 10 opens the upgrade screen.

What gets recorded

A session that runs to zero adds its minutes to Total wind down on your streak screen and counts toward the Wind Down titles. Two of them are Night Owl Tamer at 7 completed sessions and Sleep Architect at 30.

When it is the right tool

Your brain will not stop after a screen night

Put the phone on the nightstand, start 15 minutes of Waves and let the screen go dark. The point is a clear signal that the day is over, which is the idea behind a wind down routine before bed.

You need a ritual, not a sleep schedule

Fixed bedtimes are hard when your evenings vary. Wind Down has no schedule at all. You start it when you are ready, so it works on a late shift or a weekend too.

You want a sound that stops by itself

Leaving a sound on all night keeps the phone playing for hours. Here the sound fades and stops, so you do not have to reach for the phone.

You want the morning to start better

The goodnight screen shows your alarm time, which is a last check that tomorrow is set. Pair it with a smart alarm and a focus session, and the evening and the morning belong to one routine.

You are trying to cut late scrolling

A timer with a black screen gives your hands something to do instead of opening a feed. It will not stop you from leaving the session, so treat it as a cue.

Limits

• It is not a sleep tracker. Wind Down does not measure sleep or read Health data.
• No schedule. It starts only when you tap it, and Home offers it only from 5 pm to 4 am.
• Five sounds, one at a time. You cannot mix sounds or use your own audio, and you cannot change the fade.
• 30 minutes at most, in steps of 5.
• Quitting early is not logged. Only a session that reaches zero counts.
• It does not set your alarm. The goodnight screen only shows the alarm time you already set.
• Needs iOS 26.2 or later. Apple's release list shows iOS 27.2 as the latest update, released on 26 October 2026.