{ "id": "5ef9754a-6d54-4505-affc-6c595105c210", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:11:19.707293Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:13:08.13188Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "e023f12044eeaeb5c10748e9c885705f95d5118f", "title": "Should You Shut Down, Sleep or Hibernate Your PC or Mac Laptop?", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 49060, "plain_text": "Should You Shut Down, Sleep or Hibernate Your PC or Mac\r\nLaptop?\r\nBy Sandro Villinger\r\nPublished: 2018-05-03 · Archived: 2026-04-05 17:03:02 UTC\r\nYou’re done working with your laptop, you close it and it goes into standby. But is that really the best way to give\r\nit a rest or should you maybe not use some of the other options like a cold shutdown or hibernation? In this article,\r\nwe’ll go through the different options and show you what to do.\r\nThe Windows 10 shutdown menu\r\nBut first, the quick rundown\r\nWhen to shut down, sleep, or hibernate your laptop?\r\nIn situations where you just need to quickly take a break, sleep (or hybrid sleep) is your way to go.\r\nIf you don’t feel like saving all your work but you need to go away for a while, hibernation is your best\r\noption.\r\nEvery once in a while it’s wise to completely shutdown your computer to keep it fresh.\r\nRead on for the full details.\r\nSleep mode\r\nWhat happens when you put your PC or Mac computer to sleep\r\nSleep is a very power efficient way to give your device a quick rest without completely shutting it down: Once\r\nyou click on that option (or close your laptop lid), everything you’re working on and everything that's running,\r\nsuch as Windows or macOS and your applications, are kept in your computer's main memory (the Random Access\r\nMemory, or RAM). That RAM is then the only thing that draws batter and unnecessary built-in devices like your\r\nlaptops processor, hard disk or DVD drive are powered down to save power.\r\nWhen to put your computer to sleep\r\nSleep mode is the best and easiest option when you’re just quickly taking a break from work and have enough\r\nbattery power left (or when your laptop is connected to the power outlet). Once you open the laptop or push a\r\nbutton, your laptop is instantly ready with all your applications running — and you can keep on working.\r\nThe cons of putting your PC or Mac to sleep\r\nhttps://www.avg.com/en/signal/should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\nSleep still consumes just a bit of battery and while it usually takes days (or weeks!) for a device on sleep to drain a\r\nfully charged battery, it’s something to be aware of. You might wake up your laptop later to discover its lost\r\nsignificant amount of battery life. But don’t worry, once the battery is critical, your laptop will automatically use\r\nhibernation (see below) to completely shut down and prevent any data loss.\r\nAlso, Windows and macOS and your apps tend to slow down and become a bit unreliable after a few days without\r\nbeing shut down. This can be due to its memory filling up or to the amount of temporary files created, among\r\nother reasons. That's why you should still reboot your PC every so often.\r\nRebooting your PC won't solve all of your performance issues — for that read our handy guide to speeding up\r\nyour PC.\r\nHow to put your Windows PC to sleep\r\nClick on the Start button in your taskbar and then on Sleep or simply close the laptop lid. That’s it. To wake it up\r\nagain, push any button on your keyboard, the power button, or open the lid. \r\nHow to put your Mac to sleep\r\nClick on the Apple button in the top left corner and select Sleep or close your MacBook. To power it up again all\r\nyou need to do is open the lid or push the power button.\r\nHibernate\r\nWhat happens when you hibernate your PC or Mac computer\r\nHibernating your computer turns it off completely but allows you to continue to resume all work. How so? It\r\nessentially freezes everything you’re doing and stores it safely on your hard disk in the so called “Hibernation\r\nFile”. It then shuts off the entire computer so it draws zero watts from the outlet. Once you push the power button,\r\nthe entire system unfreezes and you can go on working.\r\nnull\r\nWhen to hibernate your computer\r\nHibernating your Windows PC or Mac allows you to suspend your computer without drawing electricity or battery\r\nlife. You should consider putting your computer to hibernate when you’re still working on something, and not\r\ngoing to be around a power outlet for several days. It’s best when you have a lot of programs, open web pages,\r\nopen documents, etc, going on that you will need to pick up later, and don’t feel like saving everything for later.\r\nThe cons of hibernating your PC or Mac computer\r\nIt takes quite a bit of a time to “hibernate” the PC and also wake it up. The simple reason for this: Everything\r\nthat’s in your memory — your Windows, your programs, your open web pages, your open documents — needs to\r\nbe saved to your hard disk. Depending on how many apps you’re running and how much memory you have (such\r\nhttps://www.avg.com/en/signal/should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nas 16 GB of RAM), that means a lot of data has to be written to and read from the hard disk. So it’s not as instant\r\nas using Sleep, which is a 1-2 second deal in most cases.\r\nHow to put your PC into hibernation mode\r\nClick on the Start button in your taskbar and then on Hibernate. That’s it. To wake it up again, you have to push\r\nthe power button. If that option is not visible, right-click on the little battery icon in your taskbar. Then click\r\nPower Options. null\r\nOn the left hand side, click on Choose what closing the lid does. Select Change settings that are currently\r\nunavailable and tick the little box next to Hibernate. null\r\nHow to put your Mac into hibernation mode\r\nHibernation on Mac is an interesting animal: Apple hides this option very deeply as it wants you to use the Sleep\r\noption first and foremost. It’s a very “Apple” approach to make you not think about various power options — you\r\neither shut down your Mac and or put it to sleep. We would not recommend manually enabling it (if you must,\r\nhere’s how to do it).\r\nShutdown\r\nWhat happens when you shut down your PC\r\nShutdown ends all your applications and completely powers off the laptop or desktop PC. It clears all memory,\r\nwhich is why I personally use it every 2-3 days to keep my system fast and responsive. It also feels like clearing\r\nup your desk a little bit.\r\nWhen to shut down your PC or Mac\r\nYou should consider shutting down your PC or Mac whenever you are done with any work and don’t need to\r\npick it up later. You should especially do so if you haven’t shut down your computer in a while. As I mentioned\r\nabove, I recommend doing it every 2-3 days just to clear out the kinks in the system: you’d be surprised how\r\nmuch better it runs with just a simple reboot. Shutting down your PC or Mac is great for getting a clean slate the\r\nnext morning.\r\nIf the PC is running sluggish or if you’re experiences it’s always worth restarting.\r\nThe cons of shutting down your computer\r\nYou need to save all your work and then wait for the system to shutdown or power up.\r\nWhat about restarting?\r\nRestarting does the same thing as shutting down: All applications are being closed and the OS (Windows/macOS)\r\ncloses, but your PC or Mac powers back up again instantly. This is the option for when you feel your computer is\r\nsluggish or something isn’t working right. A good old dose of “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”.\r\nhttps://www.avg.com/en/signal/should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nHybrid Sleep: The Secret Windows Option!\r\nDesktop PCs come with an option called “Hybrid Sleep”, which mixes the best of hibernation and sleep mode. It\r\nputs all information that Windows requires for a speedy startup into your RAM, which is very similar to sleep\r\nmode. But the things you are working on will be written to the hard drive just in case (remember: The RAM loses\r\nits information once the power is gone, the hard disk won’t). This is disabled on laptops or tablets because they\r\nhave a battery, but if yours is dying or if you just like the concept of hybrid sleep, then you should enable it. It\r\nmight take just a bit longer than sleep mode to power down and startup your device, but it’s a safe option.\r\nHow to enable Hybrid Sleep on PC\r\nRight-click on the battery icon just as you’ve done above. Select Power Options. Then click on Change plan\r\nsettings next to the power plan that’s enabled. Next, go to Change advanced power settings. Go to Sleep, Allow\r\nhybrid sleep and select On.\r\nnull\r\nYou won’t find the new Hybrid Sleep option in your start menu, instead it replaces the Sleep option so you can\r\njust use that going forward.\r\nAre any of these sleep options damaging my computer?\r\nTechnically, when you put your PC or Mac into Sleep mode, a part of it will continue to run. In theory, this\r\nbecomes part of the wear and tear of any piece of machinery that runs, but the real impact here is so low that you\r\ndon’t need to worry about it. Using your laptop on a daily basis will contribute far more to component wear than\r\nany sleep mode could so you shouldn’t worry about it. Of course, shutting down and hibernating are the options\r\nwith literal no wear.\r\nWhat customers say\r\nSource: https://www.avg.com/en/signal/should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop\r\nhttps://www.avg.com/en/signal/should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop\r\nPage 4 of 4", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "MITRE" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://www.avg.com/en/signal/should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop" ], "report_names": [ "should-you-shut-down-sleep-or-hibernate-your-pc-or-mac-laptop" ], "threat_actors": [ { "id": "f8dddd06-da24-4184-9e24-4c22bdd1cbbf", "created_at": "2023-01-06T13:46:38.626906Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:03.043681Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "Tick", "aliases": [ "G0060", "Stalker Taurus", "PLA Unit 61419", "Swirl Typhoon", "Nian", "BRONZE BUTLER", "REDBALDKNIGHT", "STALKER PANDA" ], "source_name": "MISPGALAXY:Tick", "tools": [], "source_id": "MISPGALAXY", "reports": null }, { "id": "54e55585-1025-49d2-9de8-90fc7a631f45", "created_at": "2025-08-07T02:03:24.563488Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:03.715427Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "BRONZE BUTLER", "aliases": [ "CTG-2006 ", "Daserf", "Stalker Panda ", "Swirl Typhoon ", "Tick " ], "source_name": "Secureworks:BRONZE BUTLER", "tools": [ "ABK", "BBK", "Casper", "DGet", "Daserf", "Datper", "Ghostdown", "Gofarer", "MSGet", "Mimikatz", "Netboy", "RarStar", "Screen Capture Tool", "ShadowPad", "ShadowPy", "T-SMB", "down_new", "gsecdump" ], "source_id": "Secureworks", "reports": null }, { "id": "d4e7cd9a-2290-4f89-a645-85b9a46d004b", "created_at": "2022-10-25T16:07:23.419513Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:04.591062Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "Bronze Butler", "aliases": [ "Bronze Butler", "CTG-2006", "G0060", "Operation ENDTRADE", "RedBaldNight", "Stalker Panda", "Stalker Taurus", "Swirl Typhoon", "TEMP.Tick", "Tick" ], "source_name": "ETDA:Bronze Butler", "tools": [ "8.t Dropper", "8.t RTF exploit builder", "8t_dropper", "9002 RAT", "AngryRebel", "Blogspot", "Daserf", "Datper", "Elirks", "Farfli", "Gh0st RAT", "Ghost RAT", "HOMEUNIX", "HidraQ", "HomamDownloader", "Homux", "Hydraq", "Lilith", "Lilith RAT", "McRAT", "MdmBot", "Mimikatz", "Minzen", "Moudour", "Muirim", "Mydoor", "Nioupale", "PCRat", "POISONPLUG.SHADOW", "Roarur", "RoyalRoad", "ShadowPad Winnti", "ShadowWali", "ShadowWalker", "SymonLoader", "WCE", "Wali", "Windows Credential Editor", "Windows Credentials Editor", "XShellGhost", "XXMM", "gsecdump", "rarstar" ], "source_id": "ETDA", "reports": null } ], "ts_created_at": 1775434279, "ts_updated_at": 1775826788, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/e023f12044eeaeb5c10748e9c885705f95d5118f.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/e023f12044eeaeb5c10748e9c885705f95d5118f.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/e023f12044eeaeb5c10748e9c885705f95d5118f.jpg" } }