Sony’s series of PlayStations have always been pretty solid, with the only common overheating issues occurring with some of the original PlayStations. Nowadays, PlayStations are supposed to be able to tolerate that sort of thing.
Though the PS5 is an improvement, in terms of download times, the PS4 is known for taking hours to download digital games, especially large ones. Sometimes, it just seems reasonable to leave it on all night so it will finish downloading and installing the game, ready for you to play when you wake your console up.
But is it a good idea to regularly leave your PlayStation running throughout the night?
Can You Leave Your Playstation on Overnight?
With the exception of the Playstation One’s overheating problems, it’s considered perfectly safe to leave your Playstation on all night in rest mode. It can be set up to download and install game updates so that when you wake up your console your favorite games are ready to play.
In the original PS1, there were screws on the laser unit that would heat up as the console would get hot. The continuous heating of these screws would eventually cause the laser to misalign and eventually fail. Oddly, many players found that flipping the PlayStation One over and using it upside down would help get some extra life out of the console.
The technology has improved drastically over the five iterations of PlayStation consoles. If you hear the fan kicking on while a PlayStation console is in rest or sleep mode, something isn’t right. When you leave it on all night, rest mode is typically the result.
Leaving your PlayStation in rest mode overnight is perfectly fine and it can be handy for leaving games to download from the PS Store or for downloading and installing updates so you can pick up with your games as soon as you go to play. It also doesn’t use much extra power and doesn’t cause much extra wear and tear.
However, if your PlayStation is always in rest mode outside of when you play it; that’s a lot of hours and they will add up. If you’re of the mindset that the cents add up to make the dollars, there is definitely a small saving to be had by turning off your console when it doesn’t need to be in rest mode.
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If you have fast WiFi and a PS5 that can download and install all your game updates in just a few minutes, you won’t need your console to be left in rest mode.
Another reason you may not want to regularly keep your PlayStation in rest mode is the bugs.
Although they are mostly reported as being fixed, there have been a number of PS5 bugs that have caused consoles to suddenly power off or crash while in rest mode resulting in the “Your PS5 wasn’t turned off properly” message and your console’s database having to be rebuilt.
Using Rest Mode
Rest mode is a low-power mode the PlayStation goes into if it doesn’t detect any interaction for a set period of time. You can change the way rest mode operates in the settings. Fortunately, the PlayStation will continue to download digital content, even when it’s in rest mode.
If you are streaming movies or video content with your PlayStation, rest mode may never get triggered, depending on your settings. If you would prefer that the PlayStation go into rest mode if you fall asleep, rather than streaming all night, you can make this change in the settings.
- Scroll to the right on the PS menu and select “Settings”
- Select “Power Saving Settings”
- Set the time you want your PlayStation to turn off
- Then you can select more refined terms, such as Media Playback and General Applications
This way, you can be sure that your PlayStation will enter rest mode if you fail to interact with it in a certain amount of time. It will also enter rest mode at a certain time of the day, depending on your Settings preferences.
If you don’t set up the parameters for rest mode, the PlayStation will continue running all night long. It won’t hurt it and there’s no reason to think that it will overheat if it’s left on either. However, you will ultimately shorten its lifespan if you do it too often.
Bottom Line
Sony’s PlayStation consoles, with the exception of the original PlayStation, should have no issues being left on all night.
It’s not a habit you should get into, since all hardware has a shelf life. But it’s also not something you need to panic over if it happens by accident or you just want to download a massive game while you’re asleep.
