Mac Kung Fu, 2nd Edition

Tip 121

Put Notebooks in Deep Sleep

Mac notebooks use magnetic case closing mechanisms to keep the lid shut, rather than physical clasps. This makes opening them much more convenient, but it also means they can open themselves sometimes, while in a travel bag, for example. Once open, they can switch themselves on and thus waste battery life. They might even create a hazard during a flight if the wireless hardware activates.

If this is a problem for you, you can set your MacBook to hibernate to disk when the lid is closed, rather than simply go into sleep mode. This turns the computer off completely, rather than keeping the memory alive with a trickle of battery power.

Note that this is arguably not a good choice for Macs with a solid-state ...