How to Fix WiFi Disconnecting Overnight: Router Sleep Mode, DHCP Lease Expiry, and WMM Power Save Fixes

Waking up to find your phone, smart TV, or laptop disconnected from WiFi — even though the router is running fine — is a specific and frustrating problem. The connection worked all evening, nothing changed, yet by morning everything needs to reconnect. Unlike random daytime drops, overnight disconnects follow a predictable pattern because they’re caused by scheduled events: a DHCP lease that expired, a power-saving mode that kicked in during inactivity, a router that rebooted on a timer, or a WiFi radio that turned itself off. This guide covers each cause and the exact setting to change to fix it.

Why Overnight Disconnects Are Different

Daytime WiFi drops are usually caused by interference, range, or congestion. Overnight drops are different — the radio environment is quieter, devices are idle, and your router is under minimal load. That combination actually triggers overnight disconnects rather than preventing them:

• Power-saving modes activate during inactivity: Windows network adapters and router radios have power management features that only engage when traffic is idle for extended periods. At 2 AM with nothing streaming, idle timers trip that most daytime activity masks.
• DHCP leases expire at a fixed interval: Short default lease times (30–120 minutes on many routers) force devices to renew their IP address repeatedly. A failed renewal at 3 AM leaves the device without a valid IP until morning.
• Scheduled router reboots and WiFi timers: Many routers ship with auto-reboot schedules or WiFi scheduler features enabled by default, often timed for the middle of the night.
• ISP and firmware maintenance: Some ISPs push firmware updates to their gateways between midnight and 4 AM, causing brief outages while the device reboots to apply the update.

Step 1: Diagnose Which Cause Applies

Before changing settings, identify what is actually happening. Log into your router’s admin panel and check the system log for entries around the time the disconnects occur. Look for:

• “DHCP lease expired” or “IP address released”: Points to DHCP renewal failure.
• “System reboot” or “WAN reconnected”: The router rebooted. Check for a scheduled reboot rule or an ISP-pushed firmware update.
• “WiFi disabled” or “SSID hidden”: A WiFi scheduler is turning off the radio.
• No log entries during the outage: The router stayed up; the problem is on the client device (power management or WMM Power Save).

If logs are not available on your router, note whether all devices disconnected simultaneously (router-side issue) or only specific devices (client-side issue). A single disconnected laptop while your phone stayed online always points to a device power management problem.

Fix 1: Disable WMM Power Save on Windows

WMM Power Save (also called U-APSD — Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery) is a WiFi standard that lets client devices sleep between scheduled delivery windows. When a Windows laptop is completely idle overnight, WMM Power Save can cause the adapter to miss a beacon from the router and fail to re-associate without user interaction.

To disable it on Windows 11 or Windows 10:

1. Open Device Manager (right-click Start > Device Manager).
2. Expand Network adapters and double-click your WiFi adapter.
3. Go to the Advanced tab and look for an entry called “U-APSD Support,” “WMM Power Save,” or “Power Save Protocol.” Set it to Disabled.
4. While in the adapter Properties, click the Power Management tab and uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.”
5. Click OK and restart the adapter (disable/re-enable it in Device Manager).

Also go to Settings > System > Power & sleep and set the screen and sleep timers to your preference — but do not confuse Windows sleep (which suspends the whole system) with the adapter-level power save that operates while Windows is still awake.

Fix 2: Extend the DHCP Lease Time on Your Router

Every IP address handed out by your router has an expiration time called the DHCP lease. When the lease expires, the device sends a renewal request. If the router is briefly busy, restarting, or experiencing a firmware glitch, the renewal fails and the device is left without a valid IP address — which kills the WiFi connection even though the radio is still associated.

Many routers ship with very short default lease times: TP-Link Archer models often default to 120 minutes, while some ISP-provided gateways use 30 or 60 minutes. For a home network, there is no reason to use a lease shorter than 24 hours. To change it:

• TP-Link: Log in at 192.168.0.1, go to Advanced > Network > DHCP Server, and change the Address Lease Time to 1440 minutes (24 hours).
• ASUS: Log in at 192.168.1.1, go to LAN > DHCP Server, and set the lease time to 86400 seconds (24 hours).
• Netgear: Go to Advanced > Setup > LAN Setup and change the Address Reservation / lease time field.
• Eero: Eero manages DHCP internally and does not expose a configurable lease time. If DHCP renewal failures are suspected on eero, assign the affected device a static DHCP reservation in the eero app under Connected Devices > [device] > Reserve IP.

Fix 3: Disable the Router’s Scheduled Reboot Timer

Many routers include a scheduled reboot feature that is sometimes enabled by default. A 3 AM router reboot disconnects every device on your network for 60–90 seconds — long enough for devices in deep sleep to miss the reconnection window and stay offline until manually reconnected.

• TP-Link: Go to Advanced > System Tools > Reboot Schedule and disable the schedule, or change it to a time you’re awake.
• ASUS: In the ASUS router app or web UI, check Administration > System > Reboot Scheduler.
• Netgear: In the Nighthawk app under Router Settings > Scheduled Maintenance.

If you want to keep a reboot schedule for stability reasons, our guide on how often to reboot your router explains what a reboot actually fixes and the best time to schedule it.

Fix 4: Disable the Router’s WiFi Scheduler

Separate from the reboot timer, many routers also include a WiFi Scheduler that physically turns off the wireless radios at preset times — often marketed as a parental control or energy-saving feature. If someone in your household enabled this or if the router shipped with a default schedule active, your WiFi will simply go dark at that time every night.

On TP-Link routers, check Advanced > Wireless > Wireless Schedule and confirm it is set to “Disable.” On ASUS, look in Wireless > Professional > Wireless scheduler. On Google Nest WiFi, Family WiFi schedules set via the Google Home app will pause WiFi for every device on that schedule — check the Google Home app under WiFi > Family WiFi.

Fix 5: macOS — Disable Wake for Network Access and Power Nap

Mac laptops have their own set of overnight WiFi behaviors. Power Nap wakes the WiFi adapter periodically to sync mail and iCloud while the lid is closed; when the sync finishes, the adapter returns to sleep. A bug or conflict in this wake cycle can leave the Mac’s network stack in a bad state on the next morning wake.

To disable: go to System Settings > Battery > Options and turn off “Enable Power Nap.” Also, in System Settings > General > Sharing, disable “Wake for network access” if you don’t need remote wake functionality. For a deeper walkthrough of Mac-specific WiFi sleep bugs, see our dedicated guide on fixing WiFi drops on MacBook after sleep.

Overnight WiFi Fix Checklist

1. Check your router logs for events at the exact time of the disconnect.
2. If only one device drops: disable WMM Power Save and adapter power management in Device Manager (Windows) or turn off Power Nap (Mac).
3. If all devices drop simultaneously: check for a router reboot schedule and disable or reschedule it.
4. Extend DHCP lease time to 1440 minutes (24 hours) or assign static DHCP reservations to affected devices.
5. Check the WiFi Scheduler and confirm it is disabled.
6. Run a speed test the following morning to confirm reconnection and stable speeds.

Working through these five fixes resolves overnight WiFi disconnections for the vast majority of home networks. If all five are confirmed and disconnects persist, the most likely remaining cause is the ISP’s own gateway rebooting during a maintenance window — in which case, contacting your ISP to check for scheduled firmware pushes or modem replacement is the next step.