Windows: What's the Difference between Sleep and Hibernate?

byIanHarvey

455 followers

9 years ago

When you shutdown a Windows PC, you also have the alternative "Sleep" and "Shutdown" options.

If you've ever wondered about the differences between them, then now you're about to find out.

Sleep is particularly convenient when you need to stop working for short periods of time. How much time Sleep lasts is determined by the amount of time that is set in the 'Power Options' menu. If that time reaches the set limit, the PC shuts down. Because documents and open applications are stored in memory, when the computer wakes up, it does so quickly, not via the very slow way of a reboot.

Hibernate mode is like Sleep but instead of saving docs and apps to RAM like Sleep does, it saves them to your hard disk. This in turn shuts the PC off and uses no power. When you restart the computer it resumes where you left off. Because it is reloading from the hard drive, not RAM, it does take a tad longer to get going, but still much less than if you were starting the PC from cold. Therefore hibernate is best when you leave the PC for much longer periods before you return.

I hope that this has been of some help. Try it out, it could save you some time!