Who cares, right? They are computers, after all, and it’s our right to leave them running. While true, it is good for a computer to get a break once in a while. While most computers can stay on for weeks on end without significant damage, it is best to turn most computers off completely each and every day when not in use for an extended period.
While it may not hurt much to shut computers down at the end of the day, many people are annoyed to have to boot them back up in the morning. The two minutes it takes for a Windows machine is just too long, and some users leave their computers on all night to avoid the “lengthy” process of booting.

But what if your computer could shut itself off after it knows you have gone to bed and then wake itself back up again? Such a situation would be downright ideal – you wouldn’t have to remember to shut it down before leaving it for the day, and you wouldn’t have to wait for it to start back up in the morning. What’s not to love?

This how-to will remind users how to program their computers to shut themselves down after day’s end and will introduce, to users with a modern enough BIOS, a way to have it start up on its own.
GHacks.net actually shared with you an automatic shutdown program called Smart Shutdown a few years back. While a solid option, some people have had problems getting it to work on Windows 7 machines. Luckily, another option called Switch Off provides the same features with support for Windows 7. The program can be downloaded here.

Follow the steps of the automatic installer, and when finished a new icon should be sitting on your taskbar. Clicking on it brings up a handy interface that allows you to choose how often you would like your machine to take itself down. Make your selections before clicking Enable Task.

Getting your machine to boot back up on its own is a little more hit and miss, but most recent machines should have you covered. Unfortunately software cannot be used to bring your computer up from a shutdown – that would defeat the purpose of a shutdown. But if you enter your BIOS options as your computer is just beginning to boot, you may find a series of options under Power Management Options or something to that effect.

Take a look there for an alarm feature which will automatically turn your computer back on. It may be labeled as Resume by RTC or RTC Alarm. Program it to come up an hour or so before you use it each day, and like magic, your login screen will await with your computer feeling rejuvenated after a long night’s sleep.

That may be going too far, but giving your computer a rest really is good for its components. You aren’t using it anyway, so why not let it go down for the night?

The Windows 7 start menu on the other hand displays one default power down option, and the remaining options in a menu next to it. Shutdown is the selected default action, while reboot, lock or sleep mode are available as menu items.

Some Windows users may prefer to change the default actions of both the power button on the PC case, as well as the power down button in the start menu. Here is how this is done.

Change Start Menu Power Button

Right-click on the start orb in the Windows taskbar and select Properties from the menu. You will find configuration options for the start menu in the window that options. among the options is a Power Button Action pull down menu. Just select the desired power button action from the menu and then OK to apply the change to the system.

You can for instance select lock or sleep if you use those modes regularly, and shutdown less regularly.

Click on the start menu orb again after you have made the change, you should see the new action on the shutdown button.

Changing the PC Case Power Button Action

Many Windows users do not know that they can change the action of their PC case power button as well. This configuration option is available in the control panel. Click the start menu orb and select Control Panel from the options afterwards. Click on the System and Security applet, and there on “Change what the power buttons do” under Power Options.

The default action is to shut down the computer. This can be changed to sleep, or do nothing in the pull down menu on the configuration screen. Some users may see different options in the menu, depending on their setup.

It is furthermore possible to define if a password needs to be entered on wakeup. If you do not want to enter your account password again, select Don’t require a password.

Click the save changes button in the end to apply the changes.

And that’s how you change the functionality of the power button on your PC case, and the power button of the start menu. Have something to add? Let me know in the comments.

Bedtime Help is a software program for Windows that visually reminds the computer user of bedtime. The bedtime, period that reminders begin to appear and the reminder interval need to be configured in the program.

A user with sleep problems could for instance change the scheduled bedtime over days or weeks until the ideal bedtime is found.

Two additional settings can be made in the program’s main interface. It is possible to create a custom reminder and select the way it is displayed to the user.

The second option is to configure an automatic shutdown of the computer. The program can be configured to shutdown the computer immediately at bedtime, shut it down after a specific amount of minutes have passed by or keep it in the state it is currently in.

Bedtime Help can be helpful for users who tend to forget the time when they do computer work. It obviously cannot force the user to go to bed but it can display a reminder to the user.

The program runs in the background and uses roughly 10 Megabytes doing so. Closing the configuration screen will hide the program so that it is only accessible in the task manager or by opening the configuration window again from the start menu or program folder.

Bedtime Help can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows.

The new power saving modes sleep and hybrid sleep replaced standby and hibernate. Sleep is just another name for standby. The data is saved to computer memory in this state before most PC components are turned off. Hybrid Sleep is a mix of sleep and hibernate as it saves the work both into memory and on the hard drive. The latter is turned off by default on mobile devices.

The reason for hybrid sleep being turned off on mobile devices is that they will automatically switch into hibernation if they run low on battery.

Some Windows users have problems with the Hybrid Sleep mode as it uses settings that can put a PC into the mode even if it is not idle.

Dont Sleep is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that can block the OS from going into sleep and hybrid-sleep mode. The program will display a list of options upon startup, namely to block:

• Standby, Hybrid-standby and Hibernation
• Shutdown
• Logoff
• Screensaver and turning off the monitor

The user can place the icon in the system tray from where it will do its magic. It is further possible to set a timer to turn the program off at a specific date and time so that the modes are not longer blocked.

Don’t Sleep is a portable software compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

Sleep Talking, a new system that is called internally Somniloquy has been designed by computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research, combines the energy saving benefits of sleep mode with the responsiveness of awake mode. An USB prototype has been created that acts as a low end computer system impersonating the host computer on the network. The prototype comes with the ability to wake the host computer system if necessary. This can be an incoming call using voice over IP or a P2P download that filled the internal flash memory of the USB prototype so that the contents have to be written to the host computer system.

Tests that the researchers conducted resulted in power savings between 60 and 80 percent depending on the use model compared to idle state which is

NapSounds.com is a very simple website aimed at providing a good content rather than an amazing design. What you can get here for free are daily updated power-nap sounds that are able to help you enjoy a few-minute rest every day to “recharge your batteries” in a short time. Power-nap is actually a really short rest during your day which – if performed the right way – can equal up to several hours of sleep. Power-nap sound containing varied sound effects and melodies picked for this purpose is the thing that should help you enjoy your short rest the right way.

These power-naps also contain special binaural beats, sounds split into 2 stereo channels and then merged by human brain again, though you need stereo headphones to make use of them. Besides daily updated preset naps you’re also allowed to compose your own nap according to your priorities. Just note that due to the nature of these sound tracks, you should only listen to them when you’re not doing any activity (like driving a car) and avoid listening to it if you suffer from epilepsy or are pregnant.

An article from psychology today tries to shed some light into sleeplessness. Its a great read with some useful information. Have a nice Sunday.