A method and apparatus of a device that modifies an application sleep state of a running application is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device detects an event associated with the running application. In addition, the device evaluates one or more run-time characteristics of the running application. The device further determines if the running application is a candidate to have the application sleep state of this running application modified based on the monitored one or more run-time characteristics of the running application and the detected event. If the running application is a candidate to have the application sleep state of this running application modified, the device sends a message to the operating system of the device indicating how the application sleep state of the running application is to be modified, where the device includes a virtual memory subsystem that pages data of the running application between volatile storage to non-volatile storage.