Personal website of Evgeny Metelkin, a Computational Biologist and Systems Pharmacology Architect 2025-11-28T00:00:00Z https://metelkin.me/ Evgeny Metelkin 2025-11-28T00:00:00Z https://metelkin.me/keep-r-awake/ <p><img src="https://metelkin.me/keep-r-awake/img/fig0-cover.jpg" alt="Cover"></p> <p>When R runs something heavy for an hour or two, laptops don't always care - many will still go to sleep if there's no user activity.<br> On Windows with Modern Standby, on macOS with default power settings, or on Linux with aggressive power-saving policies, this can interrupt work even if R is still busy.</p> <p><strong>NoSleepR</strong> solves this problem with a simple idea:<br> <strong>keep the system awake only while R is doing something important, and let it return to normal afterward.</strong></p> <p>It uses the operating system's official sleep-prevention mechanisms:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Windows:</strong> PowerRequest API</li> <li><strong>macOS:</strong> <code>caffeinate</code></li> <li><strong>Linux (systemd):</strong> <code>systemd-inhibit</code></li> </ul> <p>No hacks, no fake mouse movement, and no permanent power-plan changes.</p> <h2>Basic usage</h2> <p>Install from CRAN:</p> <pre class="language-r"><code class="language-r">install.packages<span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token string">"NoSleepR"</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> library<span class="token punctuation">(</span>NoSleepR<span class="token punctuation">)</span></code></pre> <p>Turn sleep prevention on manually:</p> <pre class="language-r"><code class="language-r">nosleep_on<span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token comment"># long-running R work here</span> nosleep_off<span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span></code></pre> <p>Or wrap a block:</p> <pre class="language-r"><code class="language-r">with_nosleep<span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">{</span> <span class="token comment"># heavy computation here</span> <span class="token punctuation">}</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span></code></pre> <p>If needed, keep the screen awake too:</p> <pre class="language-r"><code class="language-r">with_nosleep<span class="token punctuation">(</span>keep_display <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token boolean">TRUE</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span> <span class="token comment"># long-running code</span> <span class="token punctuation">}</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span></code></pre> <p>This is particularly useful on Windows laptops that ignore sleep-prevention when the display turns off in battery mode.</p> <h2>Why this package exists</h2> <p>Disabling sleep mode globally works, but it's overkill:</p> <ul> <li>consumes battery even when idle,</li> <li>requires changing system settings (sometimes blocked by admins),</li> <li>easy to forget to revert.</li> </ul> <p><code>NoSleepR</code> keeps things simple: <strong>only stay awake when the code runs.</strong></p> <p>If your workflow calls <strong>C++</strong>, <strong>Rcpp</strong>, <strong>external binaries</strong>, or other <strong>blocking system calls</strong>, they are covered as long as R waits for them to finish.</p> <h2>What NoSleepR does ΝΟΤ do</h2> <p>Some behaviors are controlled strictly by the OS and cannot be overridden:</p> <ul> <li>closing the laptop lid forces sleep,</li> <li>pressing the power button forces sleep,</li> <li>corporate-managed policies may override PowerRequest.</li> </ul> <p>On remote servers, the package does nothing: servers normally do not sleep, and remote session drops are usually network timeouts.</p> <h2>Practical scenarios</h2> <ul> <li>overnight simulations</li> <li>bootstrap or MCMC workflows</li> <li>machine-learning training loops</li> <li>ETL or data-cleaning pipelines</li> <li>unattended scripts on laptops with aggressive sleep policies</li> </ul> <p>If the &quot;YouTube tab&quot; method works for you, <code>NoSleepR</code> will work too but without wasting power or being ridiculous.</p> <h2>Feedback</h2> <p>Bug reports, suggestions, and contributions are welcome:</p> <p>👉 <a href="https://github.com/hetalang/NoSleepR" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/hetalang/NoSleepR</a></p> <hr> <p>This post is syndicated at <a href="https://www.r-bloggers.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">R-bloggers</a>.</p>