Should I Shut Down, Hibernate, or Sleep?

?Shutdown:Overnight, or you are not using the computer for long periods.

?Hibernate: This is for laptops operating on batteries - set the laptop to go into hibernation automatically at a certain low battery level, e.g. 5%. Your work is saved temporalily until you go off hiberbation. You can also use this feature when you want to shut down in an emergency and want to save what you are doing temporary. (for desktops and laptops.)

?Sleep: When you want to go off for a little while and want to return to what you are doing. Your work is not saved unless you do it manually.

i rarely shutdown my home pcs/laptops and schedule backups/maintenance in the middle of the night. that ensures those activities don't interfere with me when i'm using the pc/laptop. both my wife and i will hop on our pc/laptop at any time during the day or evening so we just always use automatic sleep.

a laptop's sleep mode draws little power and generates little heat so it won't adversely affect any components. battery life may be lessened a bit but my wife's laptop seems to last just as long as it did 2 years ago.

Thanks for the tips!
I will be using my laptop in college, and was wondering if it is safe to use sleep or hibernate and then put the laptop in my backpack?

My laptop takes 8-10 minutes to finish starting when I completely turn it off. If I restart from hibernating, it takes less than 2. Secondly, the info held in memory, as mentioned in an earlier post, is helpful for me. I am a consultant and log into customer sites/personal machines regularly. When I hibernate, I can work immediately the next day without all the re-logging in and linking. If I fully restart, all the login and linking information is cleared. So for me time is the consideration here.
My HP laptop does not heat up while hibernating, and I typically perform a power-down and restart once weekly, or when I notice a dropoff in speed or functionality. I have been doing things this way for 3 years, with no adverse effects.
If I allow the machine to self-hibernate, results are less predictable. I always fully restart if the machine self-hibernates when the battery gets low.
Test with your machine. Examine your own personal and professional needs. Do what works best and safest for you.

I have Windows XP, but it's pretty much the same with both versions.

"Stand By" ("Sleep" in Vista) only shuts down certain parts of the machine, so it still will use some battery power and may be a bit warm, but less so than when it is running normally. This is the quickest to do and to "wake up" from, and generally laptops will automatically go into stand-by mode when you close them and wake up when you open them, so it is useful for short amounts of time such as walking to class. Usually I just close my laptop and once the power light shows it's in stand-by I put it in my bag and go. This seems to work fine, and if I leave it in there for too long (depending on power settings, mine is 30 minutes) it will automatically go into hibernation. You might want to test and make sure your laptop doesn't get too warm in stand-by mode, but most laptops should be fine, and if you don't hear any fans running it should definitely be fine to put it in the bag.

"Hibernate" stores the contents of the memory to the hard drive and then completely shuts down the computer, so there is no concern about heat or battery drainage. Use this when you need to shut down for an extended amount of time but then immediately resume what you had open. This takes longer to do and "wake up" from than stand by (sleep) but not as long as shutting down and restarting.

"Shut Down" your computer if you won't be using it for a while and you can close everything you have open. This takes the longest to do and to "wake up" from but it's generally the healthiest for your computer.