Difference between wait() and sleep()

A wait can be "woken up" by another process calling notify on the monitor which is being waited on whereas a sleep cannot. Also a wait (and notify) must happen in a block synchronized on the monitor object whereas sleep does not:

Object mon = ...;
synchronized (mon) {
    mon.wait();
} 

At this point the currently executing thread waits and releases the monitor. Another thread may do

synchronized (mon) { mon.notify(); }

(On the same mon object) and the first thread (assuming it is the only thread waiting on the monitor) will wake up.

You can also call notifyAll if more than one thread is waiting on the monitor - this will wake all of them up. However, only one of the threads will be able to grab the monitor (remember that the wait is in a synchronized block) and carry on - the others will then be blocked until they can acquire the monitor's lock.

Another point is that you call wait on Object itself (i.e. you wait on an object's monitor) whereas you call sleep on Thread.

Yet another point is that you can get spurious wakeups from wait (i.e. the thread which is waiting resumes for no apparent reason). You should always wait whilst spinning on some condition as follows:

synchronized {
    while (!condition) { mon.wait(); }
}

Example1: using wait() and sleep():

synchronized(HandObject) {
    while(isHandFree() == false) {
        /* Hand is still busy on happy coding or something else, please wait */
        HandObject.wait();
    }
}

/* Get lock ^^, It is my turn, take a cup beer now */
while (beerIsAvailable() == false) {
    /* Beer is still coming, not available, Hand still hold glass to get beer,
       don't release hand to perform other task */
    Thread.sleep(5000);
}

/* Enjoy my beer now ^^ */
drinkBeers();

/* I have drink enough, now hand can continue with other task: continue coding */
setHandFreeState(true);
synchronized(HandObject) {
    HandObject.notifyAll();
}

Let clarity some key notes:

1. Call on:
   • wait(): Call on current thread that hold HandObject Object
   • sleep(): Call on Thread execute task get beer (is class method so affect on current running thread)
2. Synchronized:
   • wait(): when synchronized multi thread access same Object (HandObject) (When need communication between more than one thread (thread execute coding, thread execute get beer) access on same object HandObject )
   • sleep(): when waiting condition to continue execute (Waiting beer available)
3. Hold lock:
   • wait(): release the lock for other object have chance to execute (HandObject is free, you can do other job)
   • sleep(): keep lock for at least t times (or until interrupt) (My job still not finish, i'm continue hold lock and waiting some condition to continue)
4. Wake-up condition:
   • wait(): until call notify(), notifyAll() from object
   • sleep(): until at least time expire or call interrupt
5. And the last point is use when as estani indicate:

you normally use sleep() for time-syncronization and wait() for multi-thread-synchronization.