Energy Saver / Battery
On a desktop Mac: System Settings → Energy Saver. On a MacBook: System Settings → Battery. This is where macOS decides when to sleep.
The main control is "Turn display off after," a slider from 1 minute to Never. Laptops show separate sliders for battery and power adapter. There's also "Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off," which keeps the system running after the screen goes dark.
Everything here is global though. Whatever you pick applies all the time. No way to say "5 minutes at night, never during work hours."
Display sleep vs. system sleep
Two different things, and the distinction matters more than you'd think.
Display sleep just turns off the screen. Mac keeps running. Downloads continue, music plays, background tasks hum along.
System sleep is the real shutdown. CPU goes idle, network drops, everything pauses until you wake it up.
macOS puts the display to sleep first, then the system follows a few minutes later. You control display timing with the slider. System timing is less obvious. On laptops, the system usually sleeps shortly after the display unless you've checked "Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off."
Want the screen off but the Mac running? For a long download or a remote connection? You need that checkbox. Otherwise the system goes down when the display does.
Lock Screen settings
System Settings → Lock Screen. Controls two things: when the screen saver kicks in, and how fast your Mac requires a password after sleeping or screen saver starts.
"Require password" can be Immediately, After 5 seconds, After 1 minute, etc. This is separate from sleep timing. Your Mac can sleep fast but not lock for a few minutes, or lock instantly but not sleep for an hour. Different settings, different places.
Corporate Macs often have this forced to "Immediately" by IT via MDM. Can't change it.
Power Nap
Power Nap lets your Mac handle certain background tasks while asleep: email, iCloud sync, software updates, Time Machine backups (on power). On by default for most Macs.
It doesn't prevent sleep. Your Mac still sleeps normally. It just wakes briefly to handle these tasks, then goes back down. If you need continuous uptime for a running process or active network connection, Power Nap won't cut it.
Scheduled sleep and wake
Older macOS versions had a Schedule button in Energy Saver for sleep/wake times. Newer versions (Ventura+) buried it somewhere under Battery → Options → Schedule, depending on your Mac.
Scheduled sleep will put your Mac down at the set time even if you're in the middle of something. Scheduled wake starts it up at a specific time, useful for servers or media centers. Both are blunt tools with no logic and no conditions.
A better approach
Every one of these settings has the same problem: they're static and global. Pick a timeout, it applies everywhere, always. No awareness of what you're actually doing.
Shake It On works on top of your existing settings. Instead of setting Energy Saver to Never (and risking a dead battery), leave your settings alone. Shake It On resets the idle timer with mouse movement only when your conditions are met.
Mac stays awake during work hours, when a specific app is running, or when you're plugged in. Sleeps normally the rest of the time. Your Energy Saver settings keep doing their job. Shake It On just overrides them when it matters.