Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeding device comprising:

• a pickup roller that picks up a sheet loaded on a sheet loading tray;
• a lifting/lowering mechanism that lifts and lowers the pickup roller;
• and
• a driver device that drives the lifting/lowering mechanism, where the pickup roller is lowered from a lifted position in picking up the sheet on the sheet loading tray, wherein
• the lifting/lowering mechanism includes a restricting member that releasably restricts the pickup roller from being lowered from the lifted position at the lifted position of the pickup roller, and
• the driver device drives the lifting/lowering mechanism so that the pickup roller is lowered from the lifted position of the pickup roller, and a drive suspend operation in which driving of the lifting/lowering mechanism by the driver device is suspended is performed after a predetermined time during which the pickup roller does not contact the sheet loading tray or the sheet on the sheet loading tray elapses from a time point when the pickup roller is released from being restricted by the restricting member at the lifted position of the pickup roller.