It could have been the case that no creature had to sleep, for this does not contradict logical axioms. God and nature have nonetheless caused or permitted humans to require sleep for rejuvenation and safety, as, though it is impossible to know how long one could survive without sleep or if exhaustion would force one to sleep long before the potential line is crossed, it is vital for energy and health. The need for sleep thrusts the deepest metaphysical and epistemological issues having to do with sleep to a position of great importance, that being the phenomenological nature of dreams and if or how they differ from the external world—and if one could know one is not dreaming.
Conscious experience can follow someone even into sleep, with mental imagery replacing the sensory perceptions of waking life. The lack physical sensations is what distinguishes the two mental states, one of a nonphysical mind perceiving itself and the other of that mind experiencing perceptions of outside matter. If waking perceptions correspond to real matter is unknown, except for this one sense of physical touch [1], as mental imagery and visual perceptions, as well as imagined and external audio, are epistemologically indistinguishable. This is the sole way to know that one is or is not dreaming; any other basis for this belief is assumed, and for those who make no assumptions but have not discovered these truths, the closest they could get is the realization that there is the great impression that one is awake or dreaming at a given time, which of course falls far short of proof in itself.
However, whether one dreams or does not, sleep leaves a person very vulnerable. Without sleep, a person can grow very weak or lethargic over time, which brings vulnerability of its own that induces a craving for rest. With sleep, a person's mind retreats away from bodily perceptions to either a dreamless condition or to perceptions pertaining only to their mind and not to an external, material world. Waking experience is not inherently vulnerable because it is only due to the increase of exhaustion and the dangers of this state that it leaves a person more susceptible to harm. Sleep, in contrast, will always leave someone vulnerable as long as there are possible threats to their wellbeing in the world of matter beyond their immaterial consciousness.
The need for sleep entails an openness to danger posed by other people, animals, weather, and other events in the external world. One could be awoken by sharp noises or sudden movements, including those that originate from a non-threatening source, yet during even a few moments of sleep, there is a departure from perception of things that could result in bodily harm. In these mere seconds, some sort of attack or hurtful natural event could occur, and someone would be left defenseless for at least that handful of moments. Recognizing these truths could cultivate an attitude making sleep a knowing expression of reliance on God.
This is not epistemological faith. The logical necessity of an uncaused cause and the high amounts of evidence for Christian theism in particular still mean sleep can be a way to surrender to what is likely an omniscient, affectionate deity as one slips away from the ability to perceive physical dangers. No, when held to without assumptions, this is commitment or hope based on evidence pointing to something that is logically possible even if it is not actually true despite its probability: that the uncaused cause cares for one even when one is either totally unconscious or dreaming. A God who cares about other needs like those of eating and drinking because humans require them (Matthew 6:25-34) would also have the same regard for the human need for sleep.
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