PCs are designed with power-saving mode to conserve energy and keep the system running smoothly. One of the power-saving modes is the sleep mode. The sleep mode, as its name means, makes your computer sleep by suspending the system’s activities and cutting off the power supply to its components asides from RAM. Most new PCs with advanced operating systems even enter into sleep mode themselves after long minutes of inactivity. However, a lot of people still see sleep mode as a no-go area for PCs and laptops, this probably stems from the fact that they don’t know what it means for PCs to be in sleep mode. So, in this article, we will be discussing sleep mode in PCs and explain whether it’s bad for PCs or not. Let us know more detail about ‘Is Sleep Mode Bad For PC?’.
Is Sleep Mode Bad For PC?
The sleep mode is created to save the PC power. Overall it’s not bad for PCs. It allows you to instantly resume your task on the PC without waiting for as long as the time it takes a system to come on after shutting it down. Generally, putting your personal computer in sleep mode doesn’t damage it. It’s a useful and proper thing to do and sometimes can even be better than shutting the computer down. Continue reading to discover the pros and cons you get from putting your computer in sleep mode.
Pros of Putting A PC On Sleep Mode
There are many advantages one gets from putting one’s PC into sleep mode. Some of these include:
- Power Conservation: One of the major benefits that you get with putting your PC in sleep mode is that it helps save power. Although you save the most power when you completely shut down your system, putting it on sleep mode also saves you a certain amount of power. When a computer is in sleep mode, it means all the components of such a system aren’t getting any power except its RAM. This is because the RAM needs the power to keep all the processes running smoothly.
- Minimizes Wear And Tear: Typically, putting the computer in sleep mode is better for it than shutting it down completely. When the computer is shut down, power is drained from all its components including its RAM and when you power it back on all its components start from their no energy situation and draw power to their capacitor, this causes certain damages to the system. And such a thing doesn’t happen with the power-saving, sleep mode because power is never 100% drained from the system. Nowadays, modern computer hardware is designed to withstand huge power cycles, frequent shutdowns of the systems cause wear and tear like lifespan reduction.
- Quicker Bootup: Another benefit one gets from putting the computer in sleep mode is that it boots much faster. Putting your computer in sleep mode rather than shutting it down is especially helpful when you need to use your computer very often or when you have a low-spec computer that takes time to boot. It’s more convenient this way as waking your computer from sleep mode takes just a few seconds, and all your previously launched apps will still be running.
Cons of Putting A PC On Sleep Mode
There are also a few downsides that come with putting your PC into sleep mode. They include:
- Drains The System Battery: The purpose of putting a computer in sleep mode is to save power, but it can later drain your computer battery completely, and end up shutting the system down. This is because a computer in sleep mode draws some power to keep the RAM running and if the PC is unplugged the battery can drain out with time. You should know that even after the battery drains you don’t won’t have any data loss issues and you get all your running sessions back once you plug it in.
- Can Affect Reboots And Updates: Putting your computer in sleep mode can cause harmful effects on its software and hardware components later. After the operating system and software updates, you’re supposed to restart your system for the updates to take effect. If you put it on sleep mode instead, the effect of the new updates will not happen. And this poses security risks as your system will be quite vulnerable to threats and malware. These days, most modern systems don’t function as they should if you don’t reboot them every day.
When To Use Sleep Mode?
It’s important to know when to use all the power-saving modes of your PC, as power fluctuations have a huge impact and can affect the lifespan of the components of the system. Sleep mode is a suitable option when there’s no risk of sudden power outages. You can put your computer to sleep mode when you aren’t using it at the moment, but you plan on coming to it after an hour or so. This is basically for your convenience so you can come back to continue your tasks from where you stopped. In addition, it’s highly recommended that you save all the files you’re working on to prevent losing them and don’t depend too much on auto-save.
During the period when you won’t be using your system for more than two hours, you shouldn’t put it in sleep mode, you need to shut it down. At night, when you’re out for the day and on vacation, your computer should be shut down completely. A hibernation is a good option if you’re working on many documents but you need to be away from your system for more than an hour or two and you’re worried about losing your work. Now that you know how to efficiently use the different power-saving modes of a PC, it will help you in conserving power and maintain the efficiency of the components of your system.
Sleep Vs Hibernation Vs Shutdown
Sleep, hibernation, and shut down are different words with different meanings when it comes to PC terms but the only thing the three words have in common is that they’re all power-saving features. Sleep mode is the most convenient and least power-saving mode of the three. With sleep mode, the system still utilizes power to run processes in the background but it still consumes far less power than a fully awake system does. The amount of power a system consumes in sleep mode depends on the processes running in the background.
On the other hand, hibernation mode is much deeper than sleep mode. This intermediate mode is different from sleep mode in that it saves the content of the RAM to disk and then shuts down the system so that it doesn’t receive any power. Although this mode takes much more time to wake up than sleep mode it’s still more power efficient.
Lastly, shutting down your system means it doesn’t utilize any power. It’s the most power-efficient mode of all the three, but the only issue with this mode is that starting the system can take a long time especially if you have a lot of autorun applications and updates waiting to be installed. All three modes are essential as they affect the life cycle of your PC’s battery.
Conclusion
Sleep Mode isn’t bad for PCs as this power-saving mode not only helps you conserve energy but also makes it easy to go back to whatever task you suspended without spending much time rebooting. While the sleeping mode isn’t harmful to PCs, you should know when and when not to use it, as previously discussed above, so sometimes it’s better to shut the system down completely to avoid slowing down the system’s efficiency.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which Is The Most Efficient Power Saving Mode For A PC?
The most efficient power-saving mode is shutting your computer down completely, and while it tends to cause more wear and tear on the components than other power-saving modes, it’s still a good option if you’re not frequently using the system. Sleep and hibernation modes are good options too, but you shouldn’t leave a PC you don’t have any use for in the nearest hours or days on these modes.
- Is It Alright To Leave Your Computer On Every Time?
Leaving your PC on all the time or not will ultimately depend on your needs. If you’re the type that is always on your system or takes little breaks in between performing tasks, then it’s right to leave it on all the time. But if you’re going to be away from it for long then it’s better to shut it down completely.
- Is Hibernation A Safer Alternative To Sleep Mode?
Yes, hibernation is a much more effective and safer alternative to sleep mode and also more power-conserving. When a system is in hibernation mode, it saves the ongoing session to a non-volatile medium, so you won’t lose any sensitive data. Even though a system in hibernation takes longer to boost than one in sleep mode, it helps that all your sessions are safe even in cases of power loss.
