knodi was close, but pmset sleep 180
does not mean "180 x display sleep time" it simply means 180 minutes.
Before you change any of your pmset
settings, I would take note of your current settings. If you enter this line in Terminal.app:
sudo pmset -g live | tee -a ~/Desktop/original-pmset.txt
it will show you the current pmset
settings and it will also save a copy to ~/Desktop/original-pmset.txt so you can keep it as a reference.
Manipulating computer sleep time with pmset
If I want my MacBook Air to go to skeep after 60 minutes of idle time when it is plugged into wall/AC power, I can set that using:
sudo pmset -c sleep 60
Similarly,
sudo pmset -c sleep 0
tells my MacBook Air not to put the computer to sleep, even if the display goes to sleep.
If I wanted that same setting for when the MacBook is on battery power (not AC/wall power), then I would use
sudo pmset -b sleep 0
I can also set different sleep times for disksleep
and displaysleep
(You can read more about pmset at https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/pmset.1.html or man pmset
in Terminal.)
I would be very interested to know if sudo pmset -c sleep 60
(or whatever value you choose) actually works for a Haswell-based MacBook Air.
Enable Power Nap
option may keep your sessions from timing out in the way you seek... – Dan J Jun 20 '13 at 19:02