does locked documents in sm12 can cause system to slow down in reading

hi experts,

When I check locked entries in sm12, i found some locked entries which are already past 8 hours and sometimes more. Do those entries contribute to the system's slow performance? When should I delete those entries? I hesitate to delete locked entries and kick users out of the system because they maybe editting some documents and have'nt saved them yet.

Thank you in advance for your response.