I have J2EE5 , web-app 2.5 , Spring - Hibernate - MysQL application , having c3p0 as Database connection pool manager.

Problem :- I have found many connections in sleeping mode , (monitoring through MySQL administrator tool) at DB side during peak load of appliaction usage , which must be utilized when a request comes asking for DB connection. But at front side , application response goes very slow if it requires a DB connection (activity).

As per my understanding , if there are sleeping connections a DB side , then those should be used to serve for DB connection and activity. But on the contrary the application response goes slow .

below listed are c3p0.properties
minPoolSize=1
maxPoolSize=80
maxStatements=100
maxIdleTime=7200
acquireIncrement=5
batchSize=100
idleConnectionTestPeriod=1800
preferredTestQuery=SELECT 1
unreturnedConnectionTimeout=2100
debugUnreturnedConnectionStackTraces=true
numHelperThreads=10

Request you to suggest or guide if any change at configuration side is required.
My estimated user flow is around - 900