In the macOS environment, managing display sleep settings is crucial for optimizing both energy efficiency and the longevity of your display hardware. Display sleep settings determine how long your Mac's display stays on when it's idle before it goes to sleep. This can help conserve battery life on portable Macs and reduce energy consumption on desktop Macs. In this article, we will explore how to adjust these settings using System Preferences and Terminal commands.

Examples:

Using System Preferences

1. Open System Preferences: Click on the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and select "System Preferences."
2. Go to Energy Saver: In System Preferences, click on "Energy Saver" for desktop Macs or "Battery" for MacBooks.
3. Adjust Display Sleep Settings: You will see a slider labeled "Turn display off after." Move the slider to set the desired time interval for your display to go to sleep.

Using Terminal

For users who prefer command-line interfaces, macOS provides the pmset command to manage power settings, including display sleep.

1. Open Terminal: You can find Terminal in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder or by using Spotlight search (Cmd + Space, then type "Terminal").
2. Check Current Settings: To view your current power settings, type the following command and press Enter:

   pmset -g

3. Set Display Sleep Time: To set the display to sleep after a specific number of minutes, use the following command:

   sudo pmset displaysleep <minutes>

   Replace <minutes> with the number of minutes you want. For example, to set the display to sleep after 10 minutes, you would use:

   sudo pmset displaysleep 10

Example Script

If you frequently need to change display sleep settings, you can create a simple shell script to automate the process.

1. Create the Script: Open Terminal and use a text editor like nano to create a new script file:

   nano set_displaysleep.sh

2. Add Script Content: Add the following lines to the script:

   #!/bin/bash
   # Script to set display sleep time
   if [ -z "$1" ]; then
       echo "Usage: $0 <minutes>"
       exit 1
   fi
   sudo pmset displaysleep $1
   echo "Display sleep time set to $1 minutes."

3. Save and Exit: Save the file and exit the text editor (Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter).
4. Make the Script Executable: Change the file permissions to make the script executable:

   chmod +x set_displaysleep.sh

5. Run the Script: Execute the script with the desired number of minutes as an argument:

   ./set_displaysleep.sh 10