Sleep is complex, and isn’t yet fully understood. However, there are actions our body takes while asleep that wouldn’t be possible while awake, such as clearing neuronal debris in the part of the brain we require to be in an active state in order to be conscious.
Interestingly, dolphins have worked around this by being able to shut down only half their cortex at a time, thus being able to be peripherally aware while repairing cellular damage and storing long term memories.
As far as we can tell it’s so our body can repair itself after a long day of activity. Do some much needed maintenance on the brain and the muscles. There might also be some reasoning in that us being asleep during the night protected us from nocturnal predators that would hunt us down while we were out and about outside our hidden and protected sleeping areas.
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