I feel you. After my last phone broke I decided to get a dual SIM phone. I set up my phone to block all calls on the first SIM from any unknown number. I got a cheap second pre-paid SIM and essentially made it my 'business number'. On my android I then have it set up to 'Do not disturb' mode during sleeping hours. The transition was a bit more cumbersome than I anticipated, but after it was all said and done, I couldn't be happier with the outcome. My friends and family can get a hold of me whenever, and I no longer get calls from business/employer/etc unless it is in the allocated times I want.

Or a friend forgeting about jetlag ringing you on a sunday morning when you were sleeping happily (just happened to me this morning :-D )

That's easy to fix though - I am putting my phone to do-not-disturb (or even airplane) mode when I go to sleep every day and I honestly don't see any disadvantages of doing that. If somebody calls me when I'm sleeping, I will react when I wake up. I don't think giving the people on the whole world the ability to wake me up whenever they want to is justified in any way.

Well I kow I should do that, but perhaps because I'm near my fifties (so lived a lot without a mobile phone), I always fail to remember to active it back when I wake up.

My wife (who is younger than me, as in 16y younger) do that too and have no problem.

For me, if I do it, I sure remember, but 2 or 3 days later :-D

I have been on do not disturb mode 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last few years. It’s actually amazing. It has allowed me to use my phone on my own terms, when I choose to, not on someone else’s terms when they want me to.

I haven't gone that far because unwanted phone calls aren't a problem for me, so I've just turned off most notifications and it's been great. Email is a much better tool when you don't have notifications on, I'm much better at paying bills because I check a couple of times a day when it's also convenient to pay them, with notifications on I'll swipe away and forget. Same goes for things I actually want to read, I'll read them properly now instead of a quick skim at an inopportune time.

Google has been awful at respecting my decision though, they'll keep enabling various news notifications and the have a very different opinion on "breaking news" than I do, I think the last one was for some Hollywood awards show. If there really is some breaking news I need to be interrupted for then the government emergency SMS service should suffice.

I first read this on HN: app notifications should really be called app interruptions. It really changes how things should be viewed.

Sounds like automating it to enable sounds at some hour when you usually are already awake may be an easy solution.