Sleep

“

▶️ See you in your dreams. — Bane

”

Sleep is a rare status effect that completely disables those affected for the entire duration. However, units affected either can be awaken by dealing damage to them or they are Invulnerable.

Units affected cannot be woken up while they are invulnerable. Certain sleep sources turn the affected units invulnerable, making it impossible to wake them up by damage. Units affected are also never automatically attacked by any unit, regardless of auto attack settings. Hence, lane creeps, neutral creeps, and any buildings will never attack sleeping units automatically because they are always using auto-attack.

Taunt sources can still force them to attack sleeping units. Player-controlled units do not automatically attack sleeping units either. The player can force their units to attack by selecting them as an attack target (with A or Left Click).

Sources

Sleep Sources

• Bane – Nightmare
• Elder Titan – Echo Stomp
• Astral Spirit – Echo Stomp
• Naga Siren – Song of the Siren

Castable while Sleeped

Castable while Sleeped

• Abaddon – Borrowed Time
• Bane – Nightmare End
• Buildings – Glyph of Fortification
• Dazzle – Nothl Projection^2b
• Elder Titan – Return Astral Spirit
• Elder Titan – Move Astral Spirit
• Legion Commander – Overwhelming Odds⁴
• Lone Druid – Savage Roar^2b
• Spirit Bear – Savage Roar^2b
• Morphling – Attribute Shift^2b
• Roshan – Roar of Retribution
• Rubick – Telekinesis Land ^{2b 5}
• Scan – Scan
• Templar Assassin – Refraction ^2b
• Troll Warlord – Battle Trance ¹
• Ursa – Enrage ^2a
• Visage – Stone Form
• Familiar – Stone Form

¹ Requires Talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

⁴ Ignores sleep only during Duel.

⁵ Ignores sleep only if self-casted Telekinesis.

Interactions

Secondary Attack

Abilities that select extra targets (excl. attack abilities) will usually target even a sleeping unit.

Attacks sleeping unit

• Gyrocopter – Flak Cannon
• Muerta – Gunslinger

Ignores sleeping unit

• Medusa – Split Shot
• Shadow Shaman – Mass Serpent Ward & Massive Serpent Ward¹
• Snapfire – Lil's Shredder¹
• Troll Warlord – Fervor^2b

¹ Requires a talent.

Bounce Attack

Bouncing abilities (excl. attack projectile) will usually bounce to sleeping units as well.

Bounces to sleeping unit

• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom ^2b

Ignores sleeping unit

• Luna – Moon Glaives
• Storm Spirit – Overload ¹

¹ Requires Talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

Auto Attack

Auto attacks usually ignores sleeping units.

Attacks sleeping unit

• Shadow Shaman – Mass Serpent Ward & Massive Serpent Ward ⁴
• Gyrocopter – Flak Cannon^2a
• Undying Zombie – Deathlust

Ignores sleeping unit

• Fountain – Fountain Attack
• Towers – Tower Attack
• Troll Warlord – Battle Trance

^2b Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

⁴ Attacks any enemy upon creation, but can't switch to a sleeping unit on its own.

Patch History

Patch

Description

24 Mar 2016

• Fixed various sleep based abilities not behaving like stuns with regards to ⇧ Shift-queue actions for when the sleep ends.