Thanks to the great advice, (exactly what I needed), provided by BrowserUk pointing me to a highly relevant section of the MSDN Library regarding SetSuspendState, a Windows power management function; I was able to develop the answer to my own question, to create a script that utilizes the Win32::API to put the Windows computer in a sleep/suspend state. Code below:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

use Win32::API;
Win32::API->Import(
      'PowrProf', 'BOOLEAN SetSuspendState(
  BOOL Hibernate,
  BOOL ForceCritical,
  BOOL DisableWakeEvent
)',
  );  

SetSuspendState(0,0,0);
[download]

Thanks Again! Your small bit of highly relevant wisdom has allowed me to come up with the answer to my own question. Precisely what I was looking for!

Additonal Notes: I have tested this out on Windows 2000 SP4, and it does precisely what I want it to: puts the system in a sleep/suspend state. If you want the system to hibernate, setting the first 0 to 1, (1,0,0), should do the trick (I have not yet tested the hibernate aspect).
As always, I welcome any constructive suggestions for improvement/enhancement of this code. :)