A Fella routine locks the apps you choose at the same time every night and holds until morning, so the decision to stop happens once, when you set it up, instead of every night at midnight.
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Bedtime scrolling is rarely a decision. It is the default thing your hand does once the lights are off. That is exactly the case a recurring routine is built for: a rule set once, in daylight, that runs itself every night regardless of how tired or unmotivated you are by the time it matters. For the behavior side of why this happens, see stop scrolling at night; this page covers the setup that actually enforces it.
Set the start time to whenever you actually want to be off your phone, and the end time to whenever you get up. The routine begins the session on its own, so there is no app to open and no toggle to remember once you are already in bed.
Fella includes a ready-made Sleep routine as a starting point. It is the same underlying mechanism as any other routine—pick the apps, pick the hours—just pre-set for a full night so you are not building one from nothing.
Apple's Screen Time Downtime already does the scheduling part for free. If you have not tried it, our guide to setting up Downtime covers it in full. For plenty of people, that is enough.
The gap tends to show up at the exact moment it matters. Downtime presents a limit screen with an Ignore Limit button, and dismissing it at midnight takes one tap and no real thought. The schedule fired; the boundary did not hold.
A Fella routine starts a real blocking session instead of a dismissible screen. One 5-minute emergency unlock per session, rather than a button that clears the whole night.
A nightly block should never mean you are unreachable. Choose the apps that actually cause the scrolling—social feeds, short video, whatever pulls you in—and leave Phone, Messages, and your alarm off the list entirely. Those keep working exactly as normal.
For the one time something genuinely can't wait, each session includes a single 5-minute emergency unlock. Long enough to handle it, short enough that it does not become tomorrow's excuse to skip the routine.
Fella is one way to hold a nightly block. If you want a fuller comparison of how other tools handle recurring night schedules, strictness, and pricing, see our roundup of app blockers for sleep and bedtime scrolling.
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Yes. A routine starts a blocking session on the days and times you choose, so a nightly block begins on its own once you have set it up, rather than needing to be turned on each evening.
Fella includes a ready-made Sleep routine as a starting point, built on the same routine and session mechanism as every other block. It is a preset, not a separate sleep-tracking feature.
No, as long as you do not add those apps to the block. Fella blocks only the apps you select, so leaving Clock, Phone, and Messages unselected keeps alarms and calls working normally.
Each session includes one 5-minute emergency unlock. Use it if something genuinely needs attention, and the selected apps lock again automatically once the five minutes end.
Downtime shows a limit screen with an Ignore Limit button that ends the restriction in one tap. A Fella routine starts a real blocking session instead, with a single 5-minute emergency unlock rather than an open exit.
