Doom scrolling keeps tired people awake long past the moment they meant to sleep, because a feed always has one more post. Plant one seed in Night Garden, put your phone down, and come back in the morning to see what grew. Over many nights, those small pauses become a garden.
How does my plant grow overnight?
Each night you get one sleep seed. A night runs from local noon to the following noon, using the timezone saved when you planted. Growth itself is steady and continuous from the moment you plant. A seed becomes a sprout, then a stem, then a bud, then an open flower that keeps growing taller and fuller through the night. Every seed starts the same, and the shape and muted color of your flower reveal themselves only as the bloom opens. The illustrated timeline below shows each stage with the actual timings built into the app.
Seed
Sprout
Stem
Bud
Bloom
In full flower
Complete
Does the app stop me from doom scrolling?
Night Garden works with your phone's lock screen, and returning later to look at your garden never stops its growth. The browser cannot tell locking from switching away, cannot watch other apps, and cannot measure your sleep. If you picked up your phone to check messages or a feed, return to Night Garden, choose Report phone use, and enter the earliest time you used the phone after planting. Saving that report freezes growth at that moment permanently. If you stayed off your phone, choose End the night now to close the night at the current time.
About motion check
Reopening the webpage automatically attempts to resume sensing; a Resume tap is only necessary if permissions or readings are unavailable, which may trigger a dialog. The check runs only while tonight's plant is on screen; locking or leaving the webpage pauses it. Movement prompts require confirmation of phone use: confirming usage permanently freezes the plant at the displayed time. Background usage can be reported manually.
How does my garden stay saved?
If you sign in with your Beside account, each night's seed and planting time are stored on the server, along with any end time you confirm. Reopening the same account brings back your whole cumulative garden on any device. Signing out or clearing browser data does not remove those saved records. Without an account, you are a guest, and only the current night lives in this browser's storage. It survives closing and reopening the same browser until the next night boundary. To keep your progress away from doom scrolling across nights and devices, sign in before you plant your first seed.
Can I change or delete a past night?
There are no edit or delete controls for historical nights. Once you report phone use or end the night, that saved result is permanent, and the night cannot be restarted. Cancelling before confirmation keeps the night growing normally. Tonight’s fully grown plant still needs End the night now to close the night and unlock sharing. Browsing past dates only views the records. Each saved plant keeps its recorded growth time and final shape.
Can my garden be lost?
It depends on how you use the app. With a signed-in account, your past nights are stored on the server, so they come back when you reopen the account, even on a different device. A guest plant stays in the browser where it was planted. Clearing that browser's site data or closing a private browsing window can erase it. There is no way to move a guest night into an account later. If keeping every night matters to you, sign in before planting.
