28

Is there a shortcut key to make a macbook sleep? Sometimes I want to save time and just use the shortcut key to put it to sleep.

leeand00
  • 1,633
  • For others coming from google with a non-apple keyboard looking for a way to turn off the screen somehow, a quick way is hot corners. – seeker_of_bacon Sep 18 '23 at 18:49

5 Answers5

39

Putting your computer to sleep

enter image description here

Above is how to sleep your computer when it's on and logged in.

The keyboard shortcut is: ALT/OPT + CMD + Eject
(i.e., ⌥ + ⌘ + ⏏).


Putting your display to sleep

enter image description here

Above is the keyboard shortcut for putting your display to sleep. The computer itself will not go to sleep, only the display will power off.

The keyboard shortcut is: Shift + Ctrl + Eject
(i.e. ⇧ + ⌃ + ⏏).


Note: Computers that lack the Eject key

For computers that lack the ⏏ key – e.g. MacBooks – the Power key (⌽) can be used instead.

Also, it's possible to hold down the Power key for 1.5 seconds and then select from a menu if you want to Sleep, Restart or Power off. You can also access the menu immediately by Ctrl + ⌽.

Community
  • 1
GummyArgyle
  • 3,101
17

Supposing you're using an Apple Keyboard: Cmd+Option+Eject

Matthieu Riegler
  • 21,486
  • 11
  • 59
  • 97
4

Under Mavericks, pressing the power button puts your Mac to sleep. This behavior changed from previous versions of OS X when this button toggled the shut-down/sleep/restart menu. You can access this menu by pressing the button a little longer or pressing ctrl + power button.

lejonet
  • 1,530
4

I like the CTRL EJECT as it brings up a dialog allowing you to sleep, restart or shutdown, like so:

Pressing ENTER shuts down Pressing R restarts Pressing S sleeps ESC cancels

BTW if you have a PC keyboard with no EJECT key, use F12

Steve Chambers
  • 22,915
3

If you have a keyboard with no eject or power key, you can use a private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::S, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_EJECT, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L | ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::D, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_EJECT, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::R, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::VK_CONSUMERKEY_EJECT, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Option-command-eject puts the Mac to sleep, control-shift-eject puts displays to sleep, and control-command-eject restarts the Mac.

Lri
  • 105,117
  • my menu missing mapping for "Sleep" - Q pls where can I put this #xml ? – Bruno Apr 19 '19 at 04:56
  • KeyRemap4MacBook was renamed to Karabiner, which has been obsoleted in favor of Karabiner-Elements: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/ – Carl Walsh Sep 09 '20 at 21:46