Typically, I turn my PC “on” in the morning and “off” at night; however, during the day when I am not at the PC I will put it to “Sleep”.
To put your computer to sleep, click the Power button on the Start menu or click the arrow next to the Lock button 
.
“Sleep” is a power saving mode that the computer will go into where all current computer activity is paused. Your computer will appear that it is “off” when in sleep mode.
Prior to going into “Sleep” mode the computer saves all open documents and programs to memory so that when you come out of “Sleep” mode, all is the way that had left it. I do recommend that if you are working on something important that you manually save the document instead of relying on the computer to retain the last saved version of the document (in case a power outage would occur).
The reason I prefer using the “Sleep” mode during my computer idle time, is that I can rapidly resume working by either pressing the “Power Button” on my PC, moving the mouse or by tapping a key on the keyboard (usually the spacebar). I don’t have to wait for the computer to boot up when coming out of “Sleep” mode.
Added note is that many PC’s are already configured, through the computer’s power management configuration, to automatically go into “Sleep” after a period of inactivity. Many notebook PC’s will also go to “Sleep” when the lid is closed and will resume when the lid is opened.
So the next time you are working on your PC and you step away to take a nap, simply give your computer some nap time as well, by using the “Sleep” mode.
post to jaanix
I don’t seem t have “Sleep.” I have standby and hibernate. (was it either of those?)
Pamela,
My bad… Sleep and Standby are one in the same.
Rick
Good one Rick,
You know after all these years I had no idea about that handy little power saver. I just normally walk away and wait for your screensaver to take over and then later the HD goes into slow down.
Cheers,
John
Actually the way you are doing it is not a bad way either. I do prefer putting the whole system into sleep and actually my keyboard has a button on it to make it happen.
Glad you dropped by…
Rick
thanks for the explanation.
I used to leave mine running all night cause it was also my alarm clock. we finally found an alarm for xmms and then we used the DVR as an alarm clock.
sadly since the upgrade to SUSE 11 with KDE4, xmms doesn’t work and I spent an hour the other night trying to install a replacement and failed so I guess it’s a good thing there isn’t anywhere I have to be..