I believe that sleep may be a mechanism through which the individual consciousness moves temporarily into a state of simple universal awareness. This "recharging" could then be viewed as critical for maintaining consciousness in our wakeful state. Individual consciousness may be highly unstable in manifested form without periodic grounding in its pure source; sleep may be there to literally obviate sensory overload. So deep, dreamless sleep, in particular, may be necessary for individual consciousness to operate, and may indeed stem or flow ultimately from the Universal. The complexity of sleep modes (from hibernation at one extreme to torpor at the other) may reflect the complex spectrum of "sentience" with which different organisms are equipped. Death is simply a stable continuation in union with universal awareness.
Siesta time!
— Gabriel Fenteany, May 30, 2016
