How your iPhone can improve your health

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Your iPhone is more than just a communication device; it can also serve to be a powerful tool for improving your physical and mental wellbeing. Hidden among the menus and settings are features designed to help you sleep better, move more, reduce eye strain, manage stress, and limit digital distractions.

Your health is shaped by daily habits, and consistency is key. The right iPhone settings help make those habits easier to build, maintain, and enjoy, turning your phone into a personal coach alongside your daily wellbeing routine. Read on to discover more.

Protect your eyes and circadian rhythm

Staring at bright screens for long hours, especially at night, can cause eye strain and disrupt your natural sleep-wake cycle by suppressing the production of melatonin. iPhones offer several features to protect your vision and support your circadian rhythm.

Your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock in your brain that helps regulate your sleep, your wakefulness, hormone release and even your body temperature. It’s triggered by light changes so some adjustments to your iPhone would make a difference.

Night Shift

Night Shift reduces blue light by shifting your display’s colours to warmer tones in the evening.

Go to Settings → Display & Brightness → Night Shift.
Schedule it to turn on from sunset to sunrise or manually enable it during evening hours.

Use Red Light (colour filter) mode

For an even deeper level of nighttime protection, you can enable a red light filter that tints your entire screen red. Red light is gentler on the eyes and doesn’t disrupt melatonin like blue light does, helping you wind down more easily.

Blue light keeps your brain alert, suppressing the hormones that tell your body it’s time to rest. Red light, with its longer wavelength, has minimal impact on your circadian rhythm.

Use this feature during your bedtime routine, while reading at night, or if you wake up and check your phone in the dark. It’s a simple, science-backed way to protect your eyes and improve sleep quality.

Go to Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Colour Filters.
Toggle Colour Filters ON.
Select Colour Tint.
Drag the Intensity and Hue sliders all the way to the right until your screen appears red.

Set a shortcut so you can quickly toggle red light mode at night:

Go to Settings → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut → choose Colour Filters.
Now triple-click the side button (or Home button) to switch red light on and off instantly.

A woman lies in bed covered with a blanket and looks at her mobile phone.

True Tone

True Tone automatically adjusts the colour of your screen based on the lighting in your environment, making it easier on your eyes. Light sensors to automatically adjust the display's colour and intensity, matching the ambient light in your environment and making text and images appear more natural, like how a piece of paper would look under light.

Enable under Settings → Display & Brightness → True Tone.

Dark Mode

Dark Mode uses a darker colour palette to reduce eye fatigue, especially in low-light conditions.

Enable in Settings → Display & Brightness → Appearance → Dark.

Reduce White Point

If you find the display too bright even on low settings, you can reduce overall screen intensity. It will turn down the bright colours and give your screen a warmer look and feel.

Go to Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Reduce White Point.
Adjust the slider to a comfortable level.

Screen Distance (iOS 17 and later)

A newer feature, Screen Distance, uses the TrueDepth camera to alert you if you’re holding your phone too close to your face for a long period of time.

If your phone is closer than 12inches (30cm) to your face for too long, it will let you know. It’s a great tool for preventing eye strain and reducing the risk of myopia (near-sightedness) in children.

Go to Settings → Screen Time → Screen Distance and toggle it on.

A woman sleeps in a bed with a smartphone next to her.

Sleep better

Quality sleep is one of the most important foundations of health, influencing everything from mood and focus to immune function and metabolism. The iPhone’s Sleep Focus and Bedtime Schedule settings in the Health app can help you establish better nighttime habits.

Once set, your iPhone will remind you when it’s time to wind down and automatically activate Sleep Focus mode during bedtime.

Set up Sleep Schedule

Open the Health app → Tap Browse → Sleep → Full Schedule & Options → Set Your First Schedule.
Choose your desired bedtime and wake-up time.
You can create different schedules for weekdays and weekends.

Use Sleep Focus to limit distractions

Sleep Focus silences notifications and dims your Lock Screen so incoming alerts don’t interrupt your rest.

Go to Settings → Focus → Sleep.
Customise which people or apps can reach you during Sleep Focus (for emergencies, for example).

Wind Down

The Wind Down feature helps you transition from screen time to bedtime by allowing you to build a customised routine and set the prompts, so it becomes a natural part of your day.

You can find the option in the Health app under Full Schedule and Options, then you can set shortcuts for relaxing activities like listening to music, journaling, or meditating with the Mindfulness app. You can also set up sleep goals.

Track sleep

If you wear an Apple Watch, the Sleep app automatically tracks your sleep duration and stages (REM, Core, Deep). You can view trends in the Health app to identify patterns — like if you’re consistently going to bed too late or waking up frequently.

A woman wearing activewear and headphones steps out of a smartphone against a yellow background.

Move more

Your iPhone can act as a built-in movement coach, encouraging more daily activity and it will also track your progress over time. By using your device, you can give yourself accountability and see where you might need to make improvements.

Activity Rings

If you use an Apple Watch, the three coloured Activity Rings (Move, Exercise, Stand) provide a visual summary of your daily movement. You can view progress in the Fitness app and set daily goals to encourage movement.

Red: calories burned
Green: minutes of exercise
Blue: hours you’ve stood for at least one minute

iPhone Motion Tracking (no Apple Watch needed)

Even without a watch, your iPhone can track your steps, walking distance, and stairs climbed using the Health app:

Open Health → Browse → Activity → Steps or Walking + Running Distance.
Turn on Fitness Tracking under Settings → Privacy → Motion & Fitness.

Fitness+ Workouts

Apple’s Fitness+ service offers guided workouts you can stream right on your iPhone — including yoga, strength training, HIIT, and mindfulness sessions. You can filter by duration, trainer, or equipment to fit your schedule.

Stand Reminders

If you sit for long periods, your Apple Watch or iPhone (via the Fitness app) can remind you to stand and move at least once per hour — a small but powerful habit for reducing health risks associated with prolonged sitting.

A close up shot of a woman holding a smartphone.

Reduce stress and improve focus

Modern life is stressful enough, and smartphones can amplify anxiety if we don’t manage notifications and screen time. Apple has tools for mindfulness, meditation, and emotional awareness that can significantly support mental health.

Mindfulness App

This app offers guided breathing and reflection sessions designed to calm the mind and lower stress.

Open Mindfulness app → choose Reflect or Breathe.
You can set reminders to take mindful breaks throughout the day.

Focus Modes

Focus modes (like Do Not Disturb, Work, Personal, or Sleep) allow you to filter notifications based on what you’re doing.

Go to Settings → Focus.
Set up different modes (for example, “Work” mode silences social media, while “Personal” mode silences work emails).

Notification Control

To avoid the subtle stress of constant pings, you can set notifications so you only get essential alerts when you want them.

Go to Settings → Notifications → customise app-by-app.
Use Scheduled Summary to group non-urgent notifications and deliver them at specific times.

Mindfulness in Health App (iOS 17 and later)

You can log your mood in the Health app to track emotional patterns over time.

Open Health → Browse → Mental Wellbeing → State of Mind.
Add daily reflections to identify triggers and patterns that affect your mood.

A woman wearing headphones is sitting on a blue wall.

Protect Your Hearing

Noise-induced hearing loss is a growing issue, especially with prolonged use of earbuds and headphones. iPhones have several tools to help you protect your ears and monitor sound exposure.

Headphone Safety

Go to Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Headphone Safety.
Enable Reduce Loud Sounds and set a safe decibel limit (for example, 80 dB).

Headphone Notifications

Your iPhone can alert you if your listening volume has been too high for too long over a 7-day period, encouraging safe listening habits.

Go to Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Headphone Safety.
Toggle Headphone Notifications on.

Noise App (Apple Watch)

If you use an Apple Watch, the Noise app monitors ambient sound levels around you and warns if the noise exceeds safe levels.

Improve posture

Poor posture and excessive screen time can lead to neck and back pain, eye fatigue, and even anxiety, as you slump into unhealthy angles to scroll. The iPhone includes several tools to help you balance usage to make sure you’re giving your body some time off.

Screen Time Reports

Screen Time tracks how much time you spend on each app and provides weekly reports. If you see your time start to escalate, then you can adjust accordingly.

Go to Settings → Screen Time → See All Activity.

App Limits

If certain apps consume too much of your time or mental energy, you can set daily limits. Make a note of apps you’re on a lot and if that starts to feel unhealthy, slowly reduce the time with enforced time limits.

Go to Settings → Screen Time → App Limits → Add Limit.

Downtime

Downtime restricts access to nonessential apps during set hours, for example, before bed or during work hours. Allowing you to reduce the temptations.

Go to Settings → Screen Time → Downtime.

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Emergency and safety

Your iPhone includes features that can assist in emergencies and potentially save your life.

Medical ID

The Medical ID allows first responders to view vital information like allergies, conditions, medications, and emergency contacts without unlocking your phone.

Go to Health → Profile → Medical ID.

Emergency SOS

Pressing the side and volume buttons together automatically calls emergency services.

Go to Settings → Emergency SOS to customise and set emergency contacts.

Free health and wellness apps for iPhone

Insight Timer. Offers thousands of guided meditations, ambient tracks, and insightful talks.

Healthy Minds Program. Based in neuroscience, you can train your mind through meditation and lessons.

Daylio. You can track your mood and keep a micro-journal so you can boost your happiness and prioritise your mental health.

Finch. A gamified ‘self-care pet’ app. You care for a virtual bird by completing wellness habits like breathing, journaling, mood-checks.

MyFitnessPal. Track nutrition, fitness, and weight loss goals with this all-in-one food and health app. Have a nutrition coach, meal planner, and food diary with you always.

Strava. This popular app is great for running, cycling and walking. You can track routes and performance and see your fitness progress.

Sleep Cycle. The intelligent alarm clock wakes you gently during your lightest sleep phase, helping you feel energised. Get a detailed analysis of your sleep patterns and even detect snoring.

Loóna. This app helps users disconnect from stress and relax before sleep through a unique blend of 3D colouring, immersive ‘escapes’ or sleepscapes, narrated stories, and calming music.

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