May very well have meant "still sleeping". My dad recently passed away, and what happened was he went to bed and never woke up, but in the morning my mom thought he was just sleeping, because he was snoring, but he was unconscious, not sleeping. She couldn't rouse him and just thought maybe was tired. Eventually she called EMS. The stepfather may not have known he was near death. It is odd that much of the next day the kids were left alone. I do not understand that.