BTS dropped Arirang last night. First album in three years. I told myself I’d set a sleep timer and listen to the first few tracks.

I didn’t set the timer. I meant to. I thought about it while the second song was playing, and then the third song started and I forgot. I woke up at 7 AM to a dead battery. Spotify had played through the entire BTS discography overnight. 3 GB of cellular data gone.

Quick answer: Spotify Sleep Timer is a built-in feature that stops playback after a set duration. To find it: open Spotify, start playing, tap the three dots in the top-right of the Now Playing screen, scroll down, and tap Sleep Timer. It’s not in the app’s settings menu — it’s tucked behind the track options menu, past the queue.

Spotify has a sleep timer

It’s just not where you’d think to look. There’s no button on the main player screen. No setting in the app’s settings menu. It’s hidden behind the three-dot menu on the Now Playing screen, past the queue.

How to find it

  1. Open Spotify and start playing
  2. Tap the three dots (top-right of Now Playing)
  3. Scroll down past the queue
  4. Tap Sleep Timer
  5. Pick a duration, or choose End of track

Set it before you close your eyes. Spotify stops playing when the timer runs out.

Why it’s hidden

Spotify wrote a whole blog post about the sleep timer and still put it behind the three-dot menu, next to “Add to Playlist” and “Share.” For podcasts, there’s a clock icon right on the player. For music, you have to know to look for it. And knowing where it is doesn’t help if you keep meaning to set it and never do. It’s one of several Spotify settings filed where nobody looks, like the Canvas toggle that controls looping videos behind every song.

Streaming apps autoplay by default — infinite queues, algorithmic playlists, no natural stopping point. The off switch exists. It’s just not something they put front and center.

The bigger picture

The setting is buried behind exactly the kind of small, low-reward task you keep meaning to do and never quite get to.

That’s why we built TrueTo. You don’t have to remember where the setting is. You don’t have to do it right now before you forget again. One tap, it’s done.

I’ve known where Spotify’s sleep timer is for two years. I set it for the first time last Tuesday. Took about ten seconds. Woke up with 80% battery and no queue of songs I don’t remember hearing.