Python time.sleep() Function

#import time module
import time

print("Before the delay")

#pause the program
time.sleep(5)

print("After the delay")

The time.sleep() function suspends the execution of a script for a specified period of time. During this suspension period, no CPU time is used.

sleep(seconds)

The function delays  execution for the specified  number of seconds. This means that the execution stops and only resumes after the specified seconds have elapsed.

The following example prints each word in a given sentence after half a second.

import time

def word_by_word(sentence):
    words = sentence.split()
    for word in words:
        print(word)
        time.sleep(0.500)

word_by_word("All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.")

Try running the above program to see the effect.

A Countdown timer

The following countdown() function prints the the integers starting from the number specified as the argument down to  0 with an interval of 1 second.

import time

def countdown(seconds = 10):
    print("Started!")
    for i in reversed(range(seconds)):
        print(i)
        time.sleep(1)
    print("Done!")

countdown()

Run the program to see the resulting effect.