Auto update is the default and I'm sure it's what most people is using. I disabled it many years ago to prevent app abusively add permissions and to prevent crashes. It was pretty common for new versions not to work properly on many devices. I remember checking the reviews before updating. This hasn't happened anymore for at least a couple of years and Android 6 solved the issue with the permissions but I didn't lose the habit. I'll download the full update. Furthermore I keep the phone in airplane mode at night. I want to sleep.
Before Marshmallow it would refuse to auto-update apps if they added a permission. It would just show you a notification about the new permission and whether to accept/decline the update.
Doesn't your phone have a sleep mode where all notifications etc are disabled for the time period you set. As this is the only phone I have I can't disable it completely have just whitelisted important numbers that would call in an emergency.
It's got a do not disturb mode, I didn't check if it has a whitelist. People that could call me for emergencies have my land line number which is over my home Internet connection. If I had only a mobile phone I'd probably do like you do.
