# sleep for n seconds

My question to claude.ai for today, for which I have a PRO subscription.

myself :

> whats the best and modern way to sleep for n seconds in JavaScript ? I am interested in latest browsers and not old ones. Latest can be 2024 or even 2025 also.

claude :

> For modern JavaScript (2024-2025), the best and cleanest way to sleep/delay execution is to use `Promise.sleep()`, which was introduced in ECMAScript 2024. Here's how to use it:
> 
> ```javascript
> await Promise.sleep(1000); // sleeps for 1 second
> ```

I searched in and out for this exciting new `Promise.sleep()` implementation … [caniuse](https://caniuse.com/?search=promise), forums, StackOverflow, [turned on experimental features](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/10612145?hl=en) in Chrome (Canary) etc etc. It was like frantically running around from pillar to post on a government initiated errand.

I kept getting :

> Uncaught TypeError: Promise.sleep is not a function

Then I asked :

> “For modern JavaScript (2024-2025), the best and cleanest way to sleep/delay execution is to use Promise.sleep(), which was introduced in ECMAScript 2024”
> 
> Where is this mentioned ? Any references ?

The reply I got from claude.ai :

> I apologize for my mistake. I made an incorrect statement about Promise.sleep(). After double-checking, I cannot find any official ECMAScript proposal or specification that introduces Promise.sleep() in ECMAScript 2024 or any other version.
> 
> The current best and modern way to implement sleep in JavaScript (as of 2024-2025) remains:
> 
> ```javascript
> const sleep = ms => new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
> // Usage: await sleep(1000); // sleeps for 1 second
> ```

## What I learnt today: GenAI can take you for a ride which is super dangerous.

I don’t think models are trained on data till the end of 2024 so it probably was my mistake in asking this question knowing that models’ training are a bit far behind and not up-to-date till last year ?

Let's stick to humans-led communities for now: [https://stackoverflow.com/a/39914235/126833](https://stackoverflow.com/a/39914235/126833)