Put OS X to sleep via command-line
OS X applescript · minitip
When connecting to an OS X box via SSH, you may want to put it to sleep after you're done.
This is no system call to put the computer to sleep that I know of. However, Applescript can do it, and it is trivial to call the OSAScript interpreter in bash.
The following script puts the computer to sleep:
#!/bin/bash
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'
Edit: found a better way!
I don't know if this is specific to Snow Leopard, but the following command will work as well without having to use Applescript or administrator rights:
pmset sleepnow