In other words, freezing people to (safely) revive them later on.  Cryogenics is something different!

If you’ll excuse the pun, the idea is still really cool if you’re considering writing a science fiction story. For example, a very long space voyage can be undertaken, arresting the normal aging process of the crew and passengers and minimising the food and water usage during the journey.

Aside from the technology required to make the such a voyage, it would also require a great deal of commitment on the part of the participants.  They would leave behind everything they’ve ever known and possibly friends and relatives that they would never see again.

Also, there’s a possibility that they wouldn’t remember the day they were frozen, if short-term memories aren’t preserved by the process.  It might be a bit of a shock for them to wake up and realise they’re already at their destination, as if no time has passed at all.

Whether your characters are arriving to found a completely new colony or join an existing one, everything is going to be different.  Time has passed, but they’ve stayed the same.  It does however give them an opportunity to start afresh.

Of course, another way of using cryonic suspension in a story is when characters need to buy some time to wait for a rescue – perhaps their supplies have run out and they have no way to go back they way they came and get more.

Of course, freezing is not the only option available – more advanced technology might be able to induce a state of metabolic stasis without using cold temperatures, supporting life but slowing down aging and biological processes to the point where you could leap through the millenia like Elizabeth Weir in Before I Sleep.  It’s not as flashy as hitting 88mph in a DeLorean time machine, but it’ll do!