sleep-prevention

Purpose

This guide covers methods to prevent Mac Studio from sleeping, including both permanent system settings and temporary command-line solutions for macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, and earlier versions.

Key Findings

System Settings Method (Permanent)

For macOS Ventura and later (including Sonoma and Sequoia):

Click Apple menu → System Settings
Select Energy (or Displays → Advanced)
Toggle on “Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off”
Additionally, go to Lock Screen → Set “Turn display off when inactive” to Never

For macOS Monterey and earlier:

Open System Preferences → Energy Saver
Check “Prevent your Mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off”

Important Note: Preventing automatic sleeping when display is off won’t stop Mac from sleeping entirely. You must also adjust Lock Screen settings to fully prevent sleep mode.

caffeinate Command (Temporary)

The caffeinate command is a built-in macOS utility that temporarily prevents sleep without modifying system preferences. This is ideal for temporary use cases or on Macs you don’t own.

Basic Usage

caffeinate

Keeps Mac awake until you press Ctrl+C or close Terminal.

Common Options

Flag	Function
`caffeinate -i`	Prevents idle sleeping
`caffeinate -d`	Prevents display from sleeping
`caffeinate -m`	Keeps disk awake at all times
`caffeinate -s`	Prevents sleep only when plugged into power
`caffeinate -t X`	Prevents sleep for X seconds

Examples

# Prevent display sleep for 3 hours (10,800 seconds)
caffeinate -dt 10800

# Prevent idle sleep indefinitely
caffeinate -i

# Prevent sleep only when on power adapter
caffeinate -s

Advantages of caffeinate

Temporary: Automatically stops when Terminal closes
No settings changes: Doesn’t require modifying System Settings
Flexible: Time-based or flag-based control
Safe for shared Macs: No need to remember to change settings back

Mac Studio Specific Notes

Mac Studio is designed to run 24/7 as a desktop workstation. Some users successfully keep their Mac Studio running continuously with proper settings configured. The M1/M2/M3 Mac Studio models all support the same sleep prevention methods.

Use Cases

Long-running tasks: Video rendering, compilation, downloads
Server/always-on usage: Running services or remote access
Presentations: Preventing sleep during demos
Temporary needs: Using caffeinate for one-time scenarios