Windows 11 won’t go to sleep: how to fix it

Applies to: Windows 11 desktops and laptops that don’t go to sleep on their own, wake up again straight after sleeping, or turn on by themselves at night. The powercfg commands also work in Windows 10. If only the screen goes dark too soon, that’s a display timeout rather than sleep; see our screen turns off after 1 minute guide instead.

Match your symptom

What you see	Likely cause	Start with
PC never goes to sleep on its own	Timeout set to Never, or an app or driver holding it awake	Step 1, Step 2
Sleeps only when no browser or media app is open	A power request from that app	Step 2, Step 3
Goes to sleep, then wakes a few seconds later	A mouse, keyboard or network adapter	Step 4, Step 5
Wakes up at night or at the same time each day	Wake timer or scheduled maintenance	Step 4, Step 6
Screen turns off but fans and lights stay on	Modern Standby, or only the display timeout applies	Step 1, Step 7
Closing the lid or pressing the power button doesn’t sleep	Lid and button actions	Step 1
Sleep option missing from the power menu	Driver or firmware, or a policy	Step 7, Step 8
Settings change back or are greyed out	Work or school policy	Step 8

Step 1: Check the sleep timeout and power buttons

Rule out the simple settings before anything else. Microsoft’s power settings page puts the timers in one place:

1. Go to Start > Settings > System > Power & battery > Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts.
2. Set Make my device sleep after to a time for Plugged in and, on a laptop, On battery. If it says Never, the PC won’t sleep on its own.
3. Check Turn my screen off after as well. It should be the same as the sleep time or shorter.

If the PC doesn’t sleep when you close the lid or press the power button, change the button actions. The Microsoft page on sleep and hibernate gives this path:

1. Search for control panel on the taskbar and open it, then select System and Security.
2. Under Power Options, select Choose what the power buttons do.
3. Select Change settings that are currently unavailable.
4. Set When I press the power button and, on a laptop, When I close the lid to Sleep for each column, then select Save changes.

The same screen holds the Hibernate option. Microsoft says hibernate was designed for laptops and might not be available on every PC. If it’s missing, hibernation may be turned off; our Fast Startup guide shows how to turn hibernation on or off with powercfg.

Step 2: Find what’s keeping the PC awake

Apps and drivers can ask Windows to stay awake, for example while a video plays, a call is running or a file is copying. Microsoft calls these power requests, and its powercfg command-line reference says they prevent the computer from automatically turning off the display or going to sleep. While one is active, the sleep timeout in Step 1 never runs out.

Open Command Prompt as administrator and run:

powercfg /requests

The output is grouped by request type. The headings usually include DISPLAY (keeps the screen on), SYSTEM (keeps the PC from sleeping) and AWAYMODE, and some versions list a few more. Under each heading you’ll see either None or one or more entries. Each entry starts with the kind of caller in square brackets, such as [PROCESS], [SERVICE] or [DRIVER], followed by its name or path and sometimes a short reason.

• All None: nothing is holding the PC awake right now. If it still won’t sleep, run the command again while the problem is happening, or move on to Step 4 in case it’s sleeping and waking straight back up.
• A browser or media app under DISPLAY or SYSTEM: often a tab playing video or audio, even muted or in the background. Close the tab or pause the media and run the command again.
• A [DRIVER] entry that mentions an audio stream: something is keeping a sound device open, such as a paused media player, a voice chat app or an audio enhancement tool. Close those apps one at a time.
• A service or a backup, sync or remote access tool: these may hold the PC awake on purpose while they work. Let the job finish, or check the app’s own settings for an option to allow sleep.

Power requests come and go, so run the command at the moment the PC should be falling asleep. One that disappears as soon as you close an app has found your cause.

Step 3: Deal with the app or driver

The best fix is in the app itself: close it, turn off a keep-awake or presentation setting, or update it. If you want an app to keep running but not hold the PC awake, powercfg can override its request. Use the caller type and name exactly as /requests showed them, with display, system or awaymode as the request types to ignore. In an administrator Command Prompt, the first line below shows the pattern with a placeholder name, and the second lists the overrides you’ve set:

powercfg /requestsoverride process example.exe display system
powercfg /requestsoverride

Use overrides sparingly. An override means the PC can go to sleep in the middle of whatever that app was doing, such as a download or a long render. Running the same command with the caller type and name but no request types should clear that override; check the list with the second line afterwards.

Media sharing can also hold the PC awake. In Power Options, next to your plan, select Change plan settings and then Change advanced power settings. If your PC shows Multimedia settings > When sharing media, set it to Allow the computer to sleep.

Step 4: Find out what woke the PC

If the PC does go to sleep but doesn’t stay asleep, the question changes from what keeps it awake to what wakes it. Right after an unexpected wake, run these in an administrator Command Prompt:

powercfg /lastwake
powercfg /devicequery wake_armed

According to Microsoft, /lastwake reports what woke the system from the last sleep, and /devicequery wake_armed lists the devices currently allowed to wake it from any sleep state. The /lastwake output usually shows a wake source type and, for a device, its name, such as a mouse, a keyboard or a network adapter. Sometimes it shows a timer, and sometimes it gives little detail or reports an unknown source. In that case, check wake timers (Step 6) and look at the wake_armed list.

The wake_armed list is often longer than you’d expect: on many PCs it includes every mouse, keyboard and network adapter. A mouse on a shaky desk, or a network adapter that wakes on any network traffic, can be enough to wake the PC within seconds.

Step 5: Stop devices waking the PC

Keep the keyboard able to wake the PC so you can still wake it easily, and turn wake off for the device that’s causing trouble. In Device Manager:

1. Right-click Start and open Device Manager.
2. Expand Mice and other pointing devices, Network adapters or wherever the device from Step 4 sits, then double-click it.
3. If the Power Management tab is there, clear Allow this device to wake the computer and select OK. Not every device has this tab.
4. For a network adapter you still want to wake the PC remotely, leave wake on and tick Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer instead, if the adapter offers it.

You can do the same from the command line. Microsoft’s powercfg reference documents this command, which uses the device name exactly as /devicequery wake_armed printed it, in quotes:

powercfg /devicedisablewake "Device name exactly as listed"

Run powercfg /devicequery wake_armed again afterwards to confirm the device has dropped off the list. Wireless mice and keyboards often wake the PC through their USB receiver, so the receiver’s entry may be the one to change.

Step 6: Check wake timers and scheduled tasks

A PC that wakes at night, or at about the same time each day, is usually doing it on a schedule. Microsoft describes /waketimers as listing the active wake timers, which wake the system from sleep and hibernate when they expire, if wake timers are enabled. Run it in an administrator Command Prompt:

powercfg /waketimers

If there’s an active timer, the output names what set it, often a scheduled task or a Windows maintenance or update job, and when it’s due. If nothing is listed, no timer is set right now; a timer can still be created later, so run the command again in the evening if the PC wakes at night.

• Turn wake timers off: in Change advanced power settings (see Step 3), expand Sleep > Allow wake timers and choose Disable, or Important Wake Timers Only where that’s offered. On some newer laptops this setting isn’t shown.
• Fix the task instead: open Task Scheduler, find the task the timer named, open its Conditions tab and clear Wake the computer to run this task. Leave Microsoft’s own tasks alone unless the timer points clearly at one; turning off wake timers is the safer switch.
• Maintenance wake-ups: in Control Panel, the Security and Maintenance page has a Change maintenance settings link under Maintenance, where you can clear the option that lets scheduled maintenance wake the computer.

Windows may still wake briefly to install updates when the PC is plugged in. If it restarts rather than just waking, check Windows Update’s active hours instead.

Step 7: Check which sleep states the PC supports

Many newer laptops use Modern Standby instead of the older S3 sleep. In Modern Standby the screen goes off and the PC drops to a low-power state, but it can stay connected and do small background tasks, so a little activity during sleep isn’t always a fault. To see what your PC supports, run:

powercfg /availablesleepstates

Microsoft says this lists the sleep states available on the system and tries to explain why others aren’t. Modern Standby usually appears as Standby (S0 Low Power Idle), and classic sleep as Standby (S3). If no standby state is available at all, the reasons listed often point to a missing or generic display driver, a hypervisor or a firmware setting, which is why the Sleep option can vanish from the power menu.

Two more powercfg reports can help:

• powercfg /sleepstudy creates a report of Modern Standby sessions over the last three days, saved as a file in the folder the command window is in. It shows which components were active during each session, which helps on a laptop that drains or warms up while asleep.
• powercfg /energy watches the PC for 60 seconds by default and saves an HTML report that flags energy problems. Microsoft recommends running it while the PC is idle with no programs or documents open.

The same tool can also create a battery report; our battery health guide explains how to read it if battery drain is the bigger worry.

Step 8: Drivers, firmware and work policies

If sleep stopped working after an update, or the Sleep option has disappeared, the driver or firmware is the next suspect.

• Display and chipset drivers: install the current graphics and chipset drivers from your PC or chip maker for your exact model. A generic display adapter in Device Manager can leave sleep unavailable.
• Unplug and test: disconnect USB hubs, docks, game controllers and other extras, then try sleep again. If it works, reconnect them one at a time.
• Clean boot: to find a startup app or service that blocks sleep, start Windows with only Microsoft services and turn the others back on in groups.

Warning before changing firmware settings: BIOS or UEFI settings control how the whole PC starts and powers down. Change one option at a time, write down the original value, and don’t update the firmware on a laptop running on battery alone. With that in mind, some PCs have firmware options for wake on LAN or wake from USB that you can turn off there, and a firmware update from the PC maker can fix sleep bugs. Check the maker’s support page for your model first.

Work or school PCs: an organization can set sleep and power button behaviour with Group Policy or device management. Settings then reset, or show as managed by your organization, and changing the policy or registry yourself can break other settings or be undone at the next sync. Ask IT rather than editing policies on a managed PC.

Known issues

As of November 2026, Microsoft’s Windows 11, version 25H2 known issues and notifications page (last updated November 5, 2026) lists no issue with sleep, hibernate, wake or power settings. The one item still open concerns USB audio devices, and the resolved issues list for 25H2 has no sleep or wake entry either. Known issues change, so check that page if sleep stopped working right after an update.

Related guides

• Screen turns off after 1 minute in Windows 11 or 10? Here’s why and how to fix it
• How to disable Fast Startup in Windows 11 and 10
• How to open Command Prompt as administrator in Windows 11 and 10
• How to check battery health in Windows 11 with a battery report

Official sources

• Microsoft: Power settings in Windows 11
• Microsoft: Shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC
• Microsoft: Windows 11, version 25H2 known issues and notifications