A bedtime for your child's phone that actually holds

A phone on the nightstand is one of the easiest ways for a school night to run late. A device bedtime doesn't replace a conversation about sleep, but it takes the nightly negotiation off your plate.

Pick a time that fits their age

There's no single right answer, but a simple rule of thumb works for most families: the phone goes to sleep before your child does, and wakes up after they're up. eGuard's starting points are:

• Under 13: 9:30 PM to 6:00 AM
• 13 and older: 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM
• On the Balanced profile, bedtime starts an hour later

Treat these as a starting point. If your child has an early school start, or a long commute, move bedtime earlier. If they're older and handling it well, give them more room.

Every night, or school nights only?

eGuard lets you choose between every night and school nights only. School nights only is a good fit for many teenagers: the rule holds when it matters most, and weekends are theirs to manage. For younger children, a bedtime that's the same every night is usually easier to keep.

Set it up in eGuard

1. Open your child's profile and go to Protection & Controls.
2. Choose Bedtime, set the start and end times, and pick every night or school nights.
3. Wait for each device to confirm. The setting shows Verified once it's on the phone, and Failed if the device reports something else.

On Android, you can also turn on Notification controls to keep the phone quiet during bedtime, so late-night messages don't light up the screen.

Talk about it first

Rules that come out of nowhere get pushed back on. Rules that were talked through tend to stick. Before you switch bedtime on, tell your child what time it starts, why, and when you'll look at it again together. If they're 13 or older on Android, they'll be asked to agree to supervision on their device, so it's better they hear about it from you first.

Bedtime works best alongside a daily screen time limit. A limit caps how much time they spend; bedtime decides when that time ends.