Confused on what sleep mode is..

Sleep mode is when you hit the top button once instead of shutting it off altogether.This still leaves the Touch on but in a dormant state.

This is like a normal iPod, they go to "sleep" instead of turning off too. At least my old 3rd gen model did.

If you see the Apple logo when you turn it on, then it was powered all the way off. If you get the menus immediately, then it was really just asleep. On my 3rd gen model, it didn't turn all the way off unless it was left unused for more than 24 hours.

Just as what other poster said, hit the top button once to put it into sleep mode, if you want to turn it off completely, you have to hold the top button for a long time until the red slide appears, and you slide the red slider to the right and you turn it off. Most ipod are always in sleep mode, they never turn off.

Turning off the touch on and off completely will drain it's battery significantly, because it requires datas to be loaded, and yes it takes a while to turn on cuz of loading.

weird

I usually power it on when I arrive at work and power it off at the end of the day before I leave the office.

But, I will admit to powering completely off when going on breaks and lunch - but I will leave it on sleep mode and see for myself what the battery performance is. 😉

I have an 8GB touch which I use for a number of hours per day and I never 'turn it off'. With all of the use with audio, I only charge it once a week.

How many hours would your typical day of listening to your iPod last?

I usually listen to mine for quite a while.

My largest playlist currently lasts for over 2.4 straight hours. 😝

i always put my ipod in sleep as this takes less battery life.
When you power the ipod off, it wil have lost quite a lot of battery life just for getting started.

Many other messages confirm that leaving in sleep mode is better for battery usage that turning off & then on again BUT be sure the WIFI IS OFF when leaving the touch in sleep or the battery will be drained more rapidly.