# SLEEP

Halts execution of the thread for the given number of seconds.

## Syntax

```
SLEEP ( seconds )

```

## Arguments

* seconds: the number of seconds (or fraction) to sleep the thread.

**Return type**

Returns an integer. Specifically, `SLEEP()` returns the number 0 if it returns normally without interruption. If the query that is being halted is killed or times out, `SLEEP()` returns the number 1.

## Examples

This function is useful mainly for debugging and measurement purposes, e.g., to make sure a list of queries runs at certain intervals.

```sql
SELECT NOW(); SELECT SLEEP(10); SELECT NOW();
***
+---------------------+
| NOW()               |
+---------------------+
| 2015-03-02 23:22:25 |
+---------------------+

+-----------+
| SLEEP(10) |
+-----------+
|         0 |
+-----------+

+---------------------+
| NOW()               |
+---------------------+
| 2015-03-02 23:22:35 |
+---------------------+

```

You can also specify fractions of a second:

```sql
SELECT NOW(6); SELECT SLEEP(0.25); SELECT NOW(6);

```

```output

+----------------------------+
| NOW(6)                     |
+----------------------------+
| 2021-07-28 18:09:08.596529 |
+----------------------------+

1 row in set (0.01 sec)

+-------------+
| SLEEP(0.25) |
+-------------+
|           0 |
+-------------+

1 row in set (0.26 sec)

+----------------------------+
| NOW(6)                     |
+----------------------------+
| 2021-07-28 18:09:08.850666 |
+----------------------------+

1 row in set (0.00 sec)
```

***

Modified at: February 24, 2023

Source: [/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/conditional-functions/sleep/](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/conditional-functions/sleep/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)