NoSleep For Mac

If your Mac of choice is a portable one, it most definitely also has a lid which, when closed, will automatically send your computer to sleep. Although this is, in most cases, a useful feature, at times it will also mean that apps you need to run around the clock will be forcefully stopped.

The unfortunate thing here is that Apple has not yet included any uncomplicated means to control the sleep behavior of your MacBook.

This and the fact that in order to actually disable the automatic sleep on lid closure feature you're required to perform a few quite complicated procedures (described on the "How to use your Mac notebook computer in closed-clamshell" page on the Apple Support website) have persuaded developers to create their own apps capable of helping you solve this problem easier.

One such tool is NoSleep, an open source and very easy to use OS X utility designed to make it as straightforward as possible to prevent your MacBook going to sleep automatically when you close its lid.

Because NoSleep runs in your Mac's menu bar, it is low-key enough to not stay in your way while you're working, and, at the same time, very simple to reach when you need to make sure that the MacBook will not take an unnecessary time out after you closed it.

Moreover, once launched, NoSleep will display a menu item in your status bar which make sit possible to effortlessly disable the sleep mode with a simple click on the "Enable NoSleep" entry.

If you're just going away for a few moments and you just want to block access to your desktop, NoSleep will also allow you to quickly lock it using the "Lock Screen" option.

Via NoSleep's preference pane, you have the option to set your Mac to always stay on whether you have it connected to an AC adapter or if it's running using the power stored in its battery.

As an added bonus, it can also be made to automatically start on login, thus enabling you to focus on the project at hand instead of always checking if NoSleep is running in the background and making sure that your MacBook will not start counting sheep as soon as its lid is down.

Although it works wonderfully and we haven't experienced any glitches while running it, NoSleep could also benefit from a built-in global shortcut feature that would make it a lot more interesting to those of us that don't like using the mouse very much.

On the whole, if you're in need of a simple way to inhibit your MacBook's tendency to doze off once its display gets close to its keyboard, NoSleep is most definitely the app that you want.