Sleep / Shut Down

[MatthewConnelly]

I recently got an external monitor for my MacBook, and i've found it easier to just wake it using my keyboard/mouse. Is it safe for me to just put my MacBook to sleep every night, rather than shut it down, or will it cause problems over time?

[notwist]

my MacBook is on/sleep pretty much all the time. I only shut it down when i will be a away for a long period of time. My Macbook had an uptime of 2-3 weeks until last night when I had to install some software updates.

[miniConvert]

It's perfectly safe. Just reboot when requested to by software update.

In terms of battery life, sleep will consume a small amount of power. However, leaving your Macbook plugged in constantly wont do much for your battery life either. That's all I'd take into consideration.

[tshakey]

i heard somewhere that it's actually more power-efficient to send your computer to sleep every night, rather than shut down and start up again?
is this true?