Waiting

Waiting is an action in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4. It can be used to wait for a period of time. Waiting is useful for getting into stores that close a specific time, and waiting for the sun to come up or go down.

In certain circumstances, there may be times when you are unable to wait. You cannot wait while enemies are nearby, when trespassing, while jumping or falling, if you are being irradiated, during dialog, or in water.

Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas
It is done by pressing the "Select" button on the PlayStation 3, the "Back" button on the Xbox 360 and the "T" button (by default) for the PC.

Fallout 4
To wait, the Sole Survivor must first sit down on a chair, couch or bench, it will then indicate what button to press to wait at the bottom of the screen. You can also open up the waiting menu by interacting with an owned/rented bed, although this will trigger Resting.

Bugs

 * If you wait while you're addicted or sleep deprived, the screen may turn black for 10-15 seconds after the waiting time has finished.
 * If your controller disconnects on a 24 hour waiting session the arrow will still go. If the waits ends with controller disconnected the game may freeze.
 * If you press the home button, immediately after starting the countdown, The wait time will speed up significantly. This is useful for long waiting sessions and will also work in Skyrim.
 * As soon as the countdown starts on the wait screen, if the player presses the directional button to wait an extra hour, it will immediately go forward then back allowing a free hour in Hardcore mode without any ill effects such as the dehydration that would have happened by actually waiting or playing that extra hour.
 * When you adjust and confirm the timer to wait longer than 4 hours, sometimes the clock will only go forward by one hour instead of the suggested time. If you try waiting again, the timer will correct itself and wait for the desired time.