Mac Sleep Wakeup Reminders

Mac Sleep Wakeup Reminders | Generated by AI

Home 2026.02

Question: How to detect when macOS closes the lid or goes to sleep, and when it wakes up, in order to send a notification to remind myself to do something?

Answer:

There are several practical ways to achieve this on macOS. The most reliable and commonly used method for regular users is SleepWatcher (a small daemon) combined with simple shell scripts. This approach works well for sending reminders when the Mac goes to sleep (usually when you close the lid) and when it wakes up (usually when you open the lid or press a key).

Recommended Solution: Use SleepWatcher (easiest for most people)

Install SleepWatcher via Homebrew (if you don’t have Homebrew → /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)")
```
brew install sleepwatcher
```

Create two simple scripts in your home folder:

# Create script that runs when going to sleep (lid close → sleep)
cat > ~/.sleep << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
osascript -e 'display notification "Lid closed / going to sleep — remember to XXX" with title "Reminder"'
# You can also add: say "Lid closed, remember to do something"
EOF

# Create script that runs when waking up
cat > ~/.wakeup << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
osascript -e 'display notification "Woke up / lid opened — time to do XXX" with title "Reminder"'
# Optional: say "Welcome back, don't forget to..."
EOF

Make them executable:
```
chmod +x ~/.sleep ~/.wakeup
```
Start SleepWatcher (you can make it auto-start later):
```
sleepwatcher --verbose \
  --sleep ~/.sleep \
  --wake ~/.wakeup
```
To run it in background permanently:
```
sleepwatcher --sleep ~/.sleep --wake ~/.wakeup &
```
Better: create a launchd plist to auto-start it at login (many guides exist, or use brew services start sleepwatcher if Homebrew supports it).

Result:

Close lid → mac sleeps → ~/.sleep runs → you get notification
Open lid / wake Mac → ~/.wakeup runs → you get notification

Alternative 1: Pure AppleScript + launchd (no extra tools)

Create one script that checks sleep state periodically (less elegant but works without installing anything):

-- Save as ~/Library/Scripts/wake-sleep-notifier.scpt
on idle
    tell application "System Events"
        set currentState to (do shell script "pmset -g | grep -i 'sleep prevented' || true")
        -- Very rough — better to track previous state in a file
    end tell
    
    -- More practical: just use sleepwatcher style above
    return 60 -- check every minute
end idle

→ This is less accurate; SleepWatcher is strongly preferred.

Alternative 2: Swift/App approach (for developers)

If you want a small menu bar app:

Use NSWorkspace notifications (simple & native):

import Cocoa

class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {
    func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ notification: Notification) {
        let center = NSWorkspace.shared.notificationCenter
        
        center.addObserver(forName: NSWorkspace.willSleepNotification, object: nil, queue: .main) { _ in
            let notif = NSUserNotification()
            notif.title = "Going to Sleep"
            notif.informativeText = "Lid closed — remember to ..."
            NSUserNotificationCenter.default.deliver(notif)
        }
        
        center.addObserver(forName: NSWorkspace.didWakeNotification, object: nil, queue: .main) { _ in
            let notif = NSUserNotification()
            notif.title = "Woke Up"
            notif.informativeText = "Lid open — time to ..."
            NSUserNotificationCenter.default.deliver(notif)
        }
    }
}

Note: willSleepNotification and didWakeNotification usually correspond well to lid close/open on MacBooks.

Quick lid state check (for scripts)

# Returns Yes/No
ioreg -r -k AppleClamshellState -d 4 | grep AppleClamshellState | awk '{print $NF}' | tr -d '"'

You can use this in cron/launchd to poll, but event-based (SleepWatcher) is much better.

SleepWatcher + notification scripts is the most popular, lightweight, and reliable solution for your use case in 2025/2026.

References:

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