Question: Are there any substitutes, alternatives or bash tricks for delaying commands without using `sleep`? For example, performing the below command without actually using sleep:

```
$ sleep 10 && echo "This is a test"

```

Answer: 
Since there are answers which are suggesting to use the non-standard `-t delay` option of `read`, here is a way to do a timed-out read in a standard shell:

```
{ ss=`stty -g`; stty -icanon min 0 time 20; read foo; stty "$ss"; }

```

The argument to `stty time` is in tenths of second.
the oldest trick in the book:

```
read && echo "This is a test"

```

Just hit `Enter` and it'll continue!