SLEEP pauses the program indefinitely or for a specified number of seconds, program is unpaused when the user presses a key or when the specified number of seconds has passed.


{{PageSyntax}}
:: SLEEP [seconds]


* Seconds are an optional [[INTEGER]] value. If there is no parameter, then it waits for a keypress.
* Any user keypress will abort the SLEEP time.
* SLEEP does NOT clear the keyboard buffer so it can affect [[INKEY$]], [[INPUT]], [[INPUT$]] and [[LINE INPUT]] reads. 
* Use an [[INKEY$]] keyboard buffer clearing loop when an empty keyboard buffer is necessary.
* SLEEP allows other programs to share the processor time during the interval.


''Example:''
{{CodeStart}} '' ''
{{Cl|CLS}} '' ''
{{Cl|PRINT}} "Press a key..."
{{Cl|SLEEP}}
{{Cl|PRINT}} "You pressed a key, now wait for 2 seconds."
{{Cl|SLEEP}} 2
{{Cl|PRINT}} "You've waited for 2 seconds."
{{Cl|PRINT}} "(or you pressed a key)"
{{CodeEnd}}
{{OutputStart}}
Press a key...
You pressed a key, now wait for 2 seconds.
You've waited for 2 seconds.
(or you pressed a key)
{{OutputEnd}}
:''Explanation:'' SLEEP without any arguments waits until a key is pressed, next SLEEP statement uses the argument 2 which means that it will wait for 2 seconds, any number of seconds can be specified.


''See also:'' 
* [[TIMER]], [[INKEY$]]
* [[_DELAY]], [[_LIMIT]]


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