Battery calibration on new aluminum macbook question

[yourdream]

The website (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490) says "5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.", does it have to sleep for exactly five hours or more? Or can it be much lesser? Because I have to go to sleep and I can't wait a little bit longer. Can I just leave the notebook sleeping overnight and then wake up and plug in the charger to charge the notebook or what? I don't the battery to mess up if I do anything wrong.

[GfulDedFan]

I usually wait until overnight. You can let it go longer than 5 hours so if you sleep for 6 or 8 or more, that's ok. The important part here is once you've waited the 5+ hours, let it charge to full 100%. You can be using your MacBook during this time. -GDF

[misterredman]

I think the waiting time has the purpose of letting the battery drain completely. The mac goes to deep sleep when the battery is low but the battery still has some charge. By letting it drain a bit more while sleeping the mac will know exactly how much charge your battery can carry. Ideally you should wait until the sleeping mac shut down itself completely (no data is lost since new macbooks use the safe sleep feature). check the "Tip" section in the Apple document:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

As the previous poster said it's important to let it charge completely then.