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Yes, in sleep mode most computers shut down most power use, including power to their USB ports, in order to shut down USB-powered external devices. That's the whole point, after all: saving as much power as possible. And when a Sony Reader is plugged into an unpowered hub, or a sleeping computer, it will drain its battery flat trying valiantly to power the whole computer.
Also, a lot of times, if the battery is too low, you won't be able to charge it off of USB at all. Most of us long-time Sony users have wall chargers, for that and other reasons (for one, because you can read while charging with them). I happen to have a real Sony charger, thanks to a holiday gift card, but people here have said that the Sony PSP portable game console chargers work quite nicely. The Sony charger I have is rated for 2 amps of current. That seems like a lot for the lil' Reader to pull, but they didn't build it that big just on a whim, so were I looking for a third-party charger, I'd make sure it had a similar rating. Oh, and external USB chargers don't work; if you plug into the USB port, the Reader starts looking for data instead of charging. It needs either a computer on the USB port or an external charger on the barrel-connector socket.
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