In this tutorial, we show you how to solve common sleep issues with your Mac or Windows computer.

Windows:

1. One thing that might be interfering with sleep is external devices. Head over to Control Panel>Device Manager and find any external devices you may have currently connected. For example, a mouse. Head over to “Mice and other pointing devices”, right-click your mouse, and select “Properties”. Then, go to the “Power Management” tab and uncheck the box next to “Allow this device to wake computer”.

2. Another thing that might be interfering with sleep is multimedia sharing. Head over to Control Panel>Power Options>Change plan settings (under the currently selected power plan)>Advanced Power Settings>Multimedia Settings and in the drop-down box, select “Allow computer to sleep”.

Mac:

1. The first thing you want to try if you are having sleep issues is a simple restart by selecting restart in the Apple Menu or holding down the power button (if needed).

2. Make sure that nothing is accessing the hard drive at time of sleep. For example, downloading files from the internet, playing media in iTunes or even playing a DVD

3. Make sure that all Bluetooth devices are either turned off or follow this to make sure they do not interrupt sleep: System Preferences>Bluetooth>Advanced and uncheck “Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer”.

4. Another thing that might stop sleep on a Mac is Spotlight indexing. If you see a little dot pulsing in the Spotlight icon near the top-right corner of your display, that means Spotlight is indexing and it will not allow your computer to go to sleep.

5. Yet another thing that might be interfering with sleep is service sharing. Head over to System Preferences>Sharing and uncheck and unnecessary sharing options. Keep in mind, some that you uncheck still might be causing sleep issues.

6. External devices are another cause of sleep issues. Make sure that all external devices, including PCI cards are removed and not trying to access the computer. If they are needed, check for updated drivers from the company.

7. If none of these steps helped fix your sleep issues, try a SMC (System Management Controller) Reset. Follow this Apple support article on more information: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411