Sleeping on a Project Zomboid Server: SleepAllowed, SleepNeeded and Skipping the Night

Why you can't sleep

A freshly created Build 42 server has SleepAllowed=false and SleepNeeded=false in its .ini: you can't sleep, and you don't need to either, because nobody gets tired from lack of sleep. It's chosen so that several players on different schedules don't have to agree on when to go to bed.

In single player it's the other way round: sleep is on and time flies while you sleep. That's why it's such a surprise when you move a save to a server (how to bring your save over).

The two options: SleepAllowed and SleepNeeded

SleepAllowed: players can sleep when their survivor is tired, but they don't need to. It's the one to turn on to be able to use a bed.

SleepNeeded: players get tired and have to sleep, as in single player. It only counts if SleepAllowed is on; otherwise it's ignored.

They're in the server's .ini file, not in the sandbox (what each .ini line does). Change them with the server stopped, because the game rewrites the .ini when it shuts down, and they apply to everyone at once.

Time only speeds up if everyone sleeps

In multiplayer the clock is the same for everyone. As long as someone is still awake, time runs at normal speed and whoever is asleep sleeps “in real time”: eight hours of sleep last as long as eight normal in-game hours. Only when everyone who's connected is asleep at the same time does time pass faster.

How much faster is set by FastForwardMultiplier, which multiplies the speed of time while sleeping (from 1 to 100; 40 by default). With the 1 hour 30 minutes day the server comes with, one in-game hour is about 3 minutes 45 seconds of real time; at ×40, eight hours of sleep go by in just under a minute.

With a single player awake, everyone else stays lying down for a long time. That's why, in a big group, the usual choice is to make sleep optional (below).

Which combination to choose

1. No sleep (the default)

   SleepAllowed=false. Nobody gets tired or sleeps and nobody waits for anyone. Best for open servers or groups that join at different times.

2. Optional sleep

   SleepAllowed=true and SleepNeeded=false. Nobody is forced to, but if everyone connected goes to bed at once, the night goes by in a moment. The most comfortable option for a group of friends who play together.

3. Mandatory sleep

   SleepAllowed=true and SleepNeeded=true. Like single player: tiredness counts and you need to find a bed. For small groups who always play at the same time, or for hardcore survival and roleplay servers (roleplay server settings).

Other settings that affect sleep

“Sleeping Event” (SleepingEvent, in the sandbox): whether events such as nightmares can jolt you awake while you sleep. It comes set to 1 (never); with 2 (sometimes) or 3 (often), sleeping outside a safe base gets scarier (the rest of the sandbox).

“Stats Decrease” (StatsDecrease, in the sandbox): how fast hunger, thirst and fatigue go down. With SleepNeeded on, on “Slow” you have to sleep less often.

“Day Length” (DayLength): with longer days, nights last longer too, and being able to skip them by sleeping becomes more appealing. “Pause time when nobody is on” (PauseEmpty) stops the clock when the server is empty, so nobody comes back to find that three nights have gone by.

If you're making several decisions at once (zombies, loot, days), the settings for playing with friends go through them together.

On NapNodes

“Sleeping allowed” (SleepAllowed) is in the panel under “Settings” → “The essentials”; SleepNeeded and FastForwardMultiplier, in the “Game and world” block. The quickest way is to type “sleep” in the “Settings” search box: all three show up, plus “Sleeping Event”. They save automatically and apply when the server restarts.

It works the same on the free server. If you can't figure it out, ask in the panel's “Help”.

Frequently asked questions