Oblivion:Sleeping and Eating

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

Character level-up occurs when the character has accumulated 10 major skill increases and finds a legal bedroll or bed to sleep on without being interrupted by a random enemy encounter. Waiting will not trigger level-up. Other than leveling up, becoming a vampire, or other, quest related needs, however, there are no benefits to sleeping over waiting. The purpose of both waiting and sleeping in the game is to allow the user to pass time and recover health, magicka and fatigue.

Places to sleep include:

• Your house(s) - free once you have bought the house.
• Inns - prices vary, usually from 10-40. Beggars and other people are helpful in finding the cheapest (or most lavish, if you prefer). Inns are available in every city and on most major roads.
• Factions - Joining the Mages or Fighters Guild gives you a free bed in any town. Other factions may give you a free bed in a single location (Dark Brotherhood, Knights of White Stallion, The Blades, Knights of the Thorn etc.)
• Beggars' bedrolls - some of these are marked as "owned", but others are free.
• A few houses (Abandoned Shack on the waterfront in IC and the Skooma Den in Bravil) has no owner so the beds can be used whenever they are available.
• Bandit camps - be careful, as these carry the greatest risk (albeit small) of being interrupted by an unfriendly creature.
• Caves, Ayleid Ruins and Forts often have beds that can be used once all enemies have been killed.

Eating is not necessary for survival, although there exists a mod that makes it so. Eating random ingredients serves to grant temporary physical effects, increase your alchemy skill, or simply lighten the load you're carrying. The effect of eating an ingredient is that it serves as a weak potion for whatever the primary effect of the ingredient is. A list of primary effects can be found on the Ingredients page. Be careful, some ingredients are poisonous!

Most "food" items will restore your fatigue when eaten, but other useful/interesting effects are readily available on-the-go in Oblivion. Eating fresh Daedra hearts restores your health, consuming Daedroth teeth grants brief Night Eye, and Bloodgrass provides the Chameleon effect, though not for long enough to be useful. Cairn Bolete caps and Boar meat can also be consumed to restore roughly 10 points of health each. Eat Clannfear Claws or Mandrake Root to cure any diseases you may have.

Sleeping has additional effects upon vampires, as does feeding on the blood of the living. These are covered in detail here.