My preferred way in Python is:
```
time.sleep(timedelta(minutes=5).total_seconds)
```
Or
```
time_to_sleep = timedelta(minutes=5) time.sleep(time_to_sleep.total_seconds())
```
```
time.sleep(timedelta(minutes=5).total_seconds)
```
Or
```
time_to_sleep = timedelta(minutes=5) time.sleep(time_to_sleep.total_seconds())
```
For example...
time.sleep(timedelta(minutes=5).total_milliseconds)
I'm not saying time.sleep can't be improved but my method makes it easier to find any mistakes I've made in the future.
As a demonstration, reading your code makes it more obvious that you've passed the wrong unit into time.sleep.
Seems reasonable! :)
When I encounter these sorts of methods (which is surprisingly rare these days) I tend to double-check what units the method takes and additionally add a comment above my call saying "`sleep` takes duration in seconds", just to give future readers more ways to check whether I screwed up.