Project Zomboid – How to Sleep

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In Project Zomboid, sleep plays a significant role in maintaining your character’s physical health, reducing mood, and skipping game time.

Therefore, learning how to sleep can significantly impact your chance of survival.

Recommended Read: How Many Players Can You Be in Multiplayer in Project Zomboid?

To sleep in Project Zomboid, your character should be in a Tired state, which you can check on the right side of your screen. Next, you have to find a sleep-able object to rest, then right-click on the object, select “Sleep”, and select “Yes” in the pop-up.

For multiplayer mode, the sleeping mechanics remain the same. However, you need to enable the “SleepNeeded” and “SleepAllowed” boxes when setting up your server.


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How to Sleep in Single Player in Project Zomboid

The most optimal way to check whether your character needs to sleep is to right-click on the sleepable object and select “Sleep”. However, this option isn’t available all the time, especially when you’re outside exploring the world, and there’s hardly any object to sleep nearby.

Now, let’s dive deep into the details!

1. Check the Sleeping Demand

You can sleep in Project Zomboid when your character is tired.

To check your character’s tiredness, look for a pale and exhausted face icon on the top right of the screen, which shows Tired.

This Tired moodle occurs regularly after you do some tasks, such as running, foraging, exercising, or using weapons. There are 4 stages of tiredness listed in order of severity:

  • Drowsy: Drowsiness occurs when fatigue is above 60%.
  • Tired: occurs when fatigue is above 70%.
  • Very Tired: occurs when fatigue is above 80%
  • Ridiculously Tired: occurs when fatigue is above 90%.

Note that Tired moodles are strongly linked with endurance. Thus, you should increase your fitness skill. In addition, sometimes, you can sleep way before the Tired icon shows up in the top right corner.

2. Find An Object To Sleep On

Next, you need to find an object (mostly furniture) to lie on.

Each sleepable object possesses a different Bed Quality attribute, divided into 3 levels: Good, Average, and Bad. You can check this attribute by right-clicking on the object.

Sleeping on an object with average and bad Bed Quality leads to a slow reduction of tiredness. Your character still remains exhausted after sleeping, along with the pain in the neck.

In Project Zomboid, you can rest on several pieces of furniture, including chairs, beds, couches, stools, or even on the floor. Tents and vehicles are also a great option.

Bed

Most beds provide average to good Bed Quality.

Beds can be found in almost all residential houses. You can also craft a bed as long as you have level 4 Carpentry skills, along with a hammer, 6 planks, 4 nails, and a mattress. A crafted bed is qualified as average Bed Quality, regardless of your Carpentry skill level.

Couch, Armchair, Chair, Bench

Like beds, you can rest on a couch, which is popular in house living rooms. All couches are categorized in average Bed Quality.

Armchairs and chairs are types of furniture that can be found in houses, restaurants, or stores. They offer Bed Quality between bad and average.

You can also craft a wooden chair to rest on. However, it’s not optimal for sleeping due to its bad Bed Quality.

Benches are visible when you’re outside, especially in the center of cities. Some types of benches offer average quality sleep, but most of them are bad in Bed Quality.

Stool

Stools can be found mostly in schools and stores. All stools are bad for Bed Quality.

Seat

You can choose to sleep in a seat, which can be found in a railway station. All seats offer average Bed Quality.

Tent

To sleep in a tent, you need a tent kit, then choose a safe place to put it, right-click on the floor, and select “Put Up Tent”. Remember this option is only available if the tent kit is in your main inventory. The tent offers average Bed Quality.

Vehicle

If you choose to sleep in a vehicle, specifically in a car, you can check out this guide to learn more about it. Sleeping in a car offers average Bed Quality.

Additionally, you can even sleep on the ground, but unless you’re too tired, it’s not advisable because it has bad Bed Quality.

That said, sleeping in a bed (especially a large one) is optimal to ensure the best sleep quality.

3. Sleep

When you stand next to a sleepable object, for instance, a bed, right-click on it and select “Sleep”.

As mentioned previously, you can sleep if only your character is tired. If your character isn’t tired enough, the “Sleep” option is displayed in red, along with the text “Can’t get back to sleep. Try again later.”. Hence you can’t choose it.

On the other hand, right-click on the bed and select “Sleep”. A small pop-up appears to ask whether you want to sleep. Select “Yes”.

The screen will then turn black, and a rotating clock icon in the center indicates the sleeping period.


How to Sleep in Multiplayer in Project Zomboid

Sleeping in multiplayer is similar to single-player. However, you need to adjust some settings to allow your characters to rest when creating the server.

After naming your server, locate the “Players” setting on the left side of the window, then tick the boxes “SleepAllowed” and “SleepNeeded”.

SleepAllowed offers an option to sleep when your character is tired. In other words, your character can do other activities to eliminate tiredness instead of sleeping.

SleepNeeded requires your character to sleep when tired. This combination allows your character to rest, just like in single mode.


Key Tips for Sleeping in Project Zomboid

Although lack of sleep can’t kill you, it increases tiredness, reduces endurance regeneration and the ability to use weapons effectively. In general, lacking sleep causes negative effects that make your life in the post-apocalyptic world more challenging.

It’s advisable to sleep in a safe base rather than a place full of zombies. Zombies can interrupt your sleeping time, thus deteriorating your sleep quality. Also, don’t forget to close all doors, windows and use curtains to ensure a secure rest.

If you want to pick up good “Bed Quality” furniture and relocate them to your house, you need level 2 of Carpentry skill and a hammer. Some beds, like large medical and hospital beds, are always available to pick up without requirements.

Sleeping tablets allow you to fall asleep without tiredness. However, you should only use it when necessary, especially when you are tired but unable to sleep since the level of tiredness will increase seriously after use.

When you suffer from both Tired and Panic moodles, you can’t sleep (The “Sleeping” option is labeled in red with the text” Too panicked to sleep”). Therefore, you have to get rid of Panic first. In this case, you can use sleeping tablets or vitamins, which can be found in medical cabinets, to fall asleep quickly.

Typically, you need to sleep 9 hours per day. However, your chosen Traits and Occupations can change this number.

The Security Guard profession provides the Night Owl trait, allowing you to sleep less and recover better. In addition, the Wakeful trait decreases the time to sleep by 30% (6 hours per day), while Sleepyhead raises the tiredness rate to 70% (at least 12 hours per day for complete recovery).

You can use an alarm clock, which can be found in bedrooms, to wake up on time. Make sure the alarm clock is in your inventory, then right-click on it and select “Set Alarm”.

There is a 5% chance of getting nightmares while sleeping, which happens regularly when you’re stressed, leading to sudden waking up.


That’s how to sleep in Project Zomboid.

Have any suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.

Binh Tran

As a game writer, my goal is to craft engaging, informative, and concise articles. Whether it's diving into the latest gaming trends or writing game guides, I'm always excited to share my insights with others.

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