1) Yes, in a sense. You just need to use your PipBoy. You should see options for how long you wish to sleep or wait.
2) No, not at all. Just be patient. Not only will you use it to help repair things in the world, it also helps in a few other interesting ways which I won't spoil for you (though you may want to keep a copy of Per Journer's excellent http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout.html handy!)
3) Armor class is an old RPG stat. Here's a good explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor_Class
thanks for the info, aqua.
i knew about waiting, but i was hoping i could sleep to heal instead. to save time, lol.
i also know about armor class. i've been playing RPGs all my life. i worded that poorly, sorry.
what i mean is that the leather armor had a higher rating than the metal.
and then i bought combat armor, which brought me up to 28, but then found tesla, which i thought would be better.
dropped it down to 23.
i don't get it lol.
how is tesla worse than combat??
EDIT: and thanks for the link, pistol. i'll check it out eventually i'm sure.