Skyrim:Sleeping

Sleeping is the process of resting in a bed, sleeping bag/roll, or pile of hay to fully restore your health, magicka, and stamina.

Sleep can trigger autosave similar to wait.

As long as you are not a werewolf and do not have the Lover Stone active (see below), sleeping for any length of time also confers a bonus to the rate at which all skills increase, lasting for eight in-game hours (equivalent to 24 real-world minutes without fast travel).

A message on screen tells you which bonus you have received; for example, "You awaken feeling Well Rested".

You may inspect active effects in the Magic menu.

• In a normal bed, you receive the Rested bonus, which confers a 5% bonus to skill increases.
• In a bed that you own, you receive the Well Rested bonus, which gives you a 10% bonus to skill increases. This applies to beds in purchased houses and rented inn beds.
• If you are married and you sleep in the building where your spouse is, you receive the Lover's Comfort bonus, which is a 15% bonus to skill increases.
• ^(DG) If you're a vampire and you sleep in a coffin, you will receive the Vampiric Blood Rested bonus, which boosts your resistance to magic by 10% for one in-game day.
• ^(HF) If you have adopted a child and you sleep in the same house as your child, you will receive the Mother's Love or Father's Love bonus, which makes healing spells and potions more effective.

• In Survival^(CC), sleeping plays a more vital role. You must sleep in order to level up, similar to previous Elder Scrolls games. Sleeping is also the only way to recover fatigue^(CC). Sleeping outside will no longer confer the Well Rested bonus. Sleeping one hour results in Refreshed (no bonus, no penalty). Sleeping two or more hours is required for Well Rested. After four in-game hours (equivalent to twelve real-world minutes), Well Rested reverts to Refreshed.

Sleeping bonuses are all cumulative with the skill-increase bonuses from any one of the three Guardian Stones—the Mage Stone, the Thief Stone, and the Warrior Stone. If the Aetherial Crown^(DG) is on during sleeping, the skill bonus is not activated. You must unequip and re-equip it to sum up all the possible skill bonuses (Guardian + Lover stones + rested/Lover's comfort).

Notes

• Rather than sleeping, you can use the Wait command anywhere to fully restore your health, magicka, and stamina. However, this will not give you any resting bonuses.
• You cannot sleep or wait when enemies are nearby, or while you are trespassing.
• You cannot sleep in a bed owned by someone else, though some NPCs will allow you to use their bed if you befriend them. Killing the owner of a bed will not (usually) remove the ownership.
• When the owner of a house is killed, beds in the previously owned house become free to sleep in. Note that this may be a different person than the bed's owner.
• Sleeping on Solstheim may cause you to wake up in a trance at one of the island's All-Maker Stones if they have yet to be cleansed. See the main article for more information.
• The Aetherial Crown^DG makes it possible to obtain both resting bonuses and the benefits of the Lover Stone. See the related article for details.

Bugs

• The time remaining for Rested, Well Rested, and Lover's Comfort is not displayed on the list of active effects. Descriptions indicate each lasts 8 hours but offer no indication of how much time has elapsed. This 8 hours is actually in-game time, translating to 24 minutes of actual time (less if the player uses the fast travel or wait feature).
  • This issue is fixed by the mod See Time Remaining for Rested Effects, which correctly shows the 24-minute countdown.
• You may not receive the message after sleeping for whatever bonus you acquired. ^?
• Rarely, you may not get any bonus for resting (regardless if it's a bed you own, a bedroll in a bandit encampment, or a rented bed in an inn). ^?