# context.sleep

`context.sleep()` pauses workflow execution for a specified duration.

When a workflow is paused, the current request completes and a new one is automatically scheduled to resume after the delay.
This ensures no compute resources are consumed during the sleep period.

<Note>Always `await` a `sleep` step to properly pause execution.</Note>

##  Arguments

<ParamField body="stepName" type="string">
    A unique identifier for the step.
</ParamField>

<ParamField body="duration" type="number|string">
    The duration to pause workflow execution.

    - **Human-readable string format:**

    | Input   | Duration    |
    |---------|-------------|
    | `"10s"` | 10 seconds  |
    | `"1m"`  | 1 minute    |
    | `"30m"` | 30 minutes  |
    | `"2h"`  | 2 hours     |
    | `"1d"`  | 1 day       |
    | `"1w"`  | 1 week      |
    | `"1mo"` | 1 month     |
    | `"1y"`  | 1 year      |

    - **Numeric format (seconds):**

    | Input   | Duration      |
    |---------|---------------|
    | `60`    | 60 seconds (1 minute) |
    | `3600`  | 3600 seconds (1 hour) |
    | `86400` | 86400 seconds (1 day) |
</ParamField>

## Usage

<CodeGroup>

```typescript TypeScript highlight={12-13}
import { serve } from "@upstash/workflow/nextjs";
import { signIn, sendEmail } from "@/utils/onboarding-utils";

export const { POST } = serve<User>(async (context) => {
  const userData = context.requestPayload;

  const user = await context.run("sign-in", async () => {
    const signedInUser = await signIn(userData);
    return signedInUser;
  });

  // 👇 Wait for one day (in seconds)
  await context.sleep("wait-until-welcome-email", "1d");

  await context.run("send-welcome-email", async () => {
    return sendEmail(user.name, user.email);
  });
});
```

```python Python
from fastapi import FastAPI
from upstash_workflow.fastapi import Serve
from upstash_workflow import AsyncWorkflowContext
from onboarding_utils import sign_in, send_email

app = FastAPI()
serve = Serve(app)


@serve.post("/api/onboarding")
async def onboarding(context: AsyncWorkflowContext[User]) -> None:
    user_data = context.request_payload

    async def _sign_in():
        return await sign_in(user_data)

    user = await context.run("sign-in", _sign_in)

    # 👇 Wait for one day (in seconds)
    await context.sleep("wait-until-welcome-email", "1d")

    async def _send_email():
        return await send_email(user.name, user.email)

    await context.run("send-welcome-email", _send_email)

```

</CodeGroup>