The Serious How-To: Nobody thinks when they close their laptop lid or when they put their PC into standby. But even if you feel sleep mode is a great way to avoid shutting down, it has many disadvantages and is not recommended for use in everyday life. From battery drain to performance degradation, here’s why I don’t use sleep mode on my Windows PC — and you might want to avoid sleep mode.
Modern PCs Boot Quickly
The biggest argument in favor of sleep mode is that when you wake a PC up from sleep, it’s available immediately. But on today’s SSD-powered machines, cold boots from a complete shutdown take only around 10 seconds.
Even if speed is a concern, Windows’ Fast Startup feature ensures that your PC boots faster than ever. You also have the hibernate function, which allows you to save your session without draining battery. Considering the other downsides of sleep mode, a few extra seconds waiting for a fresh start is well worth it.
Frequent Sleep Can Slow Down Your PC
Using sleep mode on a regular basis as opposed to shutting down your system properly will reduce its performance. Sleep doesn’t entirely restart your system, so ultimately temporary files, background processes, and memory usage build up over time. This can result in sluggish performance, buggy software, and even broken Windows updates that can only be fixed with a reboot.
Regularly shutting down your PC clears system memory, closes stuck processes, and restores a smooth experience.
Sleep Mode Drains Battery
Modern Standby on Windows has a bad reputation for significantly eating into battery life. Even when your device is “asleep,” it still uses up power to store data in memory.
This isn’t a massive deal on desktops, but can be annoying on laptops. I have on several occasions left my fully charged laptop in sleep mode overnight and woken up to find its battery substantially drained. If you travel a lot or use your computer on battery power, sleep mode might not be the best choice.
Find Out if You Have Interrupted System Processes and Corrupt Files
Sleep mode is a suspend mode rather than a full shutdown; programs are not properly closed. This usually works just fine, but if it goes wrong, it can lead to software crashes, corrupted files, or lost progress.
If you tend to use resource-heavy programs like Adobe Premiere Pro, AutoCAD, or even your gaming software, sleep mode may not be friendly with you. Suspending incorrectly can lead to stability problems, lost work and random crashes when your session resumes.
Hardware Pressure and Overheating
Sleep mode itself does not harm your hardware, but it might cause undue stress over time.
- Excess Heat: A laptop in sleep mode tends to generate heat while in a backpack or laptop sleeve, which can damage internal components.
- Battery Lifespan: The battery is constantly used and keeping its sleep mode active can lead to battery wear over time.
- Random Performance Issues: After some time, extended sleep features may lead to inconsistent device performance, such as slow performance, deep battery drain, and other issues.
Final Thoughts: Sleep Mode Is Not Worth the Hassle
Sleep mode is a valuable feature, but when it comes to its current implementation on Windows, it’s less than ideal. Still, if used off and on for short stints, it’s okay. Like any regularly used feature, it can suffer performance, battery, or software stability issues due to everyday usage.
Instead, hibernate your PC or power it off when you’re finished. A few extra seconds to startup are a small price to pay for smoother, more reliable experience.
