Macbook: sleep vs. shutting down

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My new Macbook is my first laptop. I use it at work and at home, and usually just put it to sleep when travelling between the two places, or while I`m sleeping.

The computer is normally almost silent and cool to the touch, but this morning it was hot and making a lot of noise. I wasn`t running anything except for Safari in the background.

Anyway, it got me wondering if it was unhealthy for the laptop to go long periods without a rest. I restart it quite often, but only occasionally shut it down for a few hours.

I seem to remember reading that desktops like being left on for long periods of time, but is it OK for laptops? If not, why not?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2x Mac Pro 8 Core 3.2 Ghz, Mac Book Pro, Mac Mini, Ipod Nano 3G
you should shut it down as sleep still drains the battery (even though its a little) It can also make it unstable in some cases (like weeks)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Unibody MacBook Pro 2.26, 4gb RAM, 500gb HD
There is nothing wrong with putting the MB to sleep when not in use or while transporting. At night mine is usually plugged in, but I put it to sleep for the night. It will drain the battery very slowly though, so if you're not going to use it for a few days, you might as well shut it down. If it's just for the night, I'd just close the lid.

Macs are designed to be used. You can't overuse them (unless you're abusing them). OS X is also designed to run for long periods of time without restarting. Occasionally, if you notice it bogging down a little, a restart can help. But don't feel bad about using it for endless hours everyday. And don't feel obligated to restart it unnecessarily. If it's running smoothly, just keep using it.

As far as it waking itself up at random--was there anything plugged into the USB ports? Sometimes a device such as a cell phone can hiccup and wake it up. (phone receives text message while plugged into USB, etc.) Usually it goes back to sleep on it's own though. But if it does stay on for a long period with the lid closed, it will generate some heat.
 
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As far as it waking itself up at random--was there anything plugged into the USB ports? Sometimes a device such as a cell phone can hiccup and wake it up. (phone receives text message while plugged into USB, etc.) Usually it goes back to sleep on it's own though. But if it does stay on for a long period with the lid closed, it will generate some heat.

A printer I`d just installed the night before was plugged in, along with a wireless modem. The printer was switched off; and the modem has never disturbed the sleeping computer before, so I didn`t even think about that. I`ll unplug next time.

Thanks for the info!
 

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