diff --git a/src/libstd/rt/io/timer.rs b/src/libstd/rt/io/timer.rs
index 6754511b03811..53e4c4051e1c3 100644
--- a/src/libstd/rt/io/timer.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/rt/io/timer.rs
@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ use rt::local::Local;
 
 pub struct Timer(~RtioTimerObject);
 
+/// Sleep the current task for `msecs` milliseconds.
+pub fn sleep(msecs: u64) {
+    let mut timer = Timer::new().expect("timer::sleep: could not create a Timer");
+
+    timer.sleep(msecs)
+}
+
 impl Timer {
 
     pub fn new() -> Option<Timer> {
@@ -52,4 +59,11 @@ mod test {
             do timer.map_move |mut t| { t.sleep(1) };
         }
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_io_timer_sleep_standalone() {
+        do run_in_mt_newsched_task {
+            sleep(1)
+        }
+    }
 }