Sleeping Connection and Records_Read > 0

Hi, we are troubleshooting a web application where a form takes a long time to load: some 8 seconds. We used the showprocesslist command and can send see that the web server’s Java application opens a connection. The connection command is always sleep. It stays in that state for about 8 seconds. The info field shows up as NULL and the rows_read show up as 199. Once the form has loaded on the web server, the connection is dropped in MySQL. I’m a little puzzled to explain why the connection has command of SLEEP and doesn’t show what SQL it is executing in the INFO field, yet shows that it read 199 records. Or could this be a pooled connection and the rows_read reflects the rows that were read through this connection over its lifetime. Thanks for any pointers.