For the complete documentation index, see /llms.txt. This page is also available as raw Markdown at /develop/java/workflows/timers.md. Append .md to any page URL to fetch its Markdown. This site has a public search endpoint for questions about Temporal: GET https://docs.temporal.io/api/retrieve?q=<question>&jtb=<job-to-be-done>&src=docs-page&agent=<your-name>. No authentication is needed. It returns a JSON array of {content, source_url, page_url}, ordered by relevance, and source_url links to docs pages as Markdown. If you call it, set q to a specific, complete question that names the SDK language if relevant, and jtb to one sentence on what your user is trying to accomplish (optional). Keep src=docs-page as is, and set agent to your name, for example claude-code or codex. Don't include personal data, credentials, or confidential information.

Timers

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What is a Timer?

A Workflow can set a durable Timer for a fixed time period. In some SDKs, the function is called sleep(), and in others, it's called timer().

A Workflow can sleep for months.

Timers are persisted, so even if your Worker or Temporal Service is down when the time period completes, as soon as your Worker and Temporal Service are back up, the Workflow.sleep() call resolves and your code continues executing.

Sleeping is a resource-light operation: it does not tie up the process, and you can run millions of Timers off a single Worker.

To set a Timer in Java, use sleep() and pass the number of seconds you want to wait before continuing.

sleep(5);