The difference between sleep and hibernation on Windows 10

The difference between sleep and hibernation on Windows 10.

How often do you think about your computer’s power consumption when you are away from it? Although computers have become quite energy-efficient, they can still consume a lot of power. Therefore, when you are not using your computer, you can turn it off.

However, not all so simple. There are several different shutdown options that a modern computer can use. Sleep and hibernation are two options that you will see when you ask your computer to take a nap. But what is the difference between sleep and hibernation? They definitely sound about the same!

In fact, there is a significant difference between these two options. This can affect both your electricity bill and data integrity.

The Baseline: Shutting Down Your Computer

Let’s start at the very bottom: shutdown. When you turn off your computer, all RAM is cleared. The computer turns off all its components and does not consume power. It can be disconnected from the network. This is as “off” as possible for your computer.

The main disadvantage is that you have to start the computer in cold boot mode. You will need to start the operating system, login, and open your applications. If you just want to pick up where you left off, this is the least convenient option.

Going To Sleep: Sipping On Power

Hibernation is probably the most popular way to turn off your computers. Sleep mode either turns off computer components or places it in a low power state. The most important piece of hardware that needs power is RAM. This is because this fast computer memory requires a constant source of energy to store its contents. Turn off the power and the data in RAM will disappear!

This is where the first serious weakness of hibernation comes in. If your computer goes out of power for any reason, you will not be able to wake up from sleep mode! In some cases, it can even lead to startup problems because the computer was not properly shut down before the power was turned off.

Obviously, laptop computers do not have this problem. Because the onboard batteries will continue to supply power to the sleeping computer in the event of a power outage. However, you may want to consider using a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) to keep your sleeping computer safe just in case.

The second big problem with sleep mode is that it still uses power. It certainly uses less power than an active computer. Usually only a few single-digit watts. However, this is a combination of days, weeks, and months.

The great convenience of hibernation is that your computer is ready to use almost instantly. Move your mouse or open the laptop lid and you’re done.

Hibernation: Going Cold For The Long Haul

Hibernation also lets you turn on your computer and pick up where you left off. The big difference here is that the contents of your memory are stored on your hard drive. It is non-volatile memory, so your data is retained even when the power is off.

If the contents of RAM are completely saved to your hard drive, your computer may shut down completely. It can be easily disconnected from the network and transported. Power outage in this case also does not matter.

So what’s the catch? Exiting sleep mode is slower than exiting sleep mode. The computer must boot from a cold state and then copy the contents of the RAM back from the hard drive.

The fact is that modern computers boot very quickly from the cold. Also, if your computer has an SSD as its primary drive, especially an NVME model, the RAM image can be copied to flash memory. So, while waking up from hibernation may not be as quick as waking up from hibernation, the gap between the two has narrowed significantly. It also means that it takes longer to go to sleep than to go to sleep, but from the user’s point of view, it doesn’t really matter.

The Hybrid Sleep Option

The third option that may be available to you is known as hybrid sleep. What happens here is that the computer goes into normal hibernation, but it also saves a copy of your RAM to the hard drive. When you resume work, it is like waking up from hibernation. However, if a power outage occurred while the computer was sleeping, it would boot as if it had exited hibernation.

So with hybrid sleep, you get the best of both worlds, but there is no free ride here! This is because it takes longer to transition to hybrid sleep than normal sleep. The difference won’t necessarily matter to you though. The second drawback is that it uses the same amount of power as a normal sleep mode. Thus, you will not get the energy savings that you get from hibernation.

Activating Different Sleep Options in Windows 10

Now that you know the difference between sleep and hibernation in Windows 10, it’s time to learn how to switch between the two. You need to tell Windows which mode to use when you put the system into standby. Here’s how to do it:

Click the Start button.
Select the gear icon.

Select System

Select Power & Sleep

Select Advanced Power Options

Select. Choose what the power buttons do.

Now you can do a few things:

Put the power button to sleep, put it to sleep, or turn off the screen instead of turning it off.
Put the sleep button to sleep or turn off the screen instead
Add hibernation as an option to the power menu

What about hybrid sleep? Let’s see how to turn it on or off. Follow the same steps 1 through 5 above.

Click the Start button.
Select the gear icon.
Select a system.
Select Power & Sleep.
Select Advanced Power Options.

6. Select “Change plan settings” for the currently selected power scheme

7. Select Change advanced power settings

In advanced settings, you will see a list of features with a plus sign next to each. Expand Sleep and then Allow Hybrid Sleep. Change the settings as you see fit.

Which Power Mode Is Right For You?

While this may all sound a little daunting, it’s actually quite easy to recommend specific power settings for different user conditions. If you use your laptop regularly, just use normal sleep mode. A built-in battery eliminates fears of power outages. If you’re going to put your laptop aside for a long time and don’t want to drain your battery, you can of course go into hibernation. However, you probably don’t need to resume a session that has lasted several weeks or months.

If you are using a desktop computer, we recommend hybrid sleep mode if you don’t mind spending a few watts when the computer is not in use.

If you want to maximize energy savings, use Hibernate on your desktop computer. Unless you’re too concerned about the slightly longer start-up times when you sit down to work.