I wrote a simple method for sleeping with a float, which also allows you to do milliseconds (via fractional seconds).
<?php
  function sleepFloatSecs($secs) {
    $intSecs = intval($secs);
    $microSecs = ($secs - $intSecs) * 1000000;
    if($intSecs > 0) {
      sleep($intSecs);
    }
    if($microSecs > 0) {
      usleep($microSecs);
    }
  }
?>
And testing on my machine it works perfectly:
<?php
  $x = [0.100,0.250,0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0,2.5];
  foreach($x as $secs) {
    $t = microtime(true);
    sleepFloatSecs($secs);
    $t = microtime(true) - $t;
    echo "$secs \t => \t $t\n";
  }
?>
Output:
<?php
  0.1     =>    0.10017800331116
  0.25    =>    0.25016593933105
  0.5     =>    0.50015211105347
  1       =>    1.0001430511475
  1.5     =>    1.5003218650818
  2       =>    2.000167131424
  2.5     =>    2.5002470016479
?>