Confused about what sleep is

I will first describe my 'old' definition of sleep that I grew up accepting it to be and then after describe this 'newer' one which doesn't sit with the old definition.

old definition : I'm awake during the day and expect to get tired/drowsy/lower_energy towards the night. When this drowsiness is at its peak, I disappear completely and reappear in the morning with a fresh mind.

new definition : I don't know when my body is asleep because I no longer believe that I must disappear for sleep to begin.

Question: Can I lay down at night and stay conscious yet my body begin sleeping? I know that WILD does this, but thats only immidiately before a REM cycle, what about sustained consciousness throughout sleep? And what are the reasons for not wanting to do this? Feeling irritation and over-heating etc? Are those the reasons why its impractical to stay conscious through the entire sleep stage?

I'm asking this because I kinda tried it last night, and never knew if I was starving my body from restoration(sleep) or if it was getting it from me just laying there silently at rest.

I don't know much, but I think it's probably impossible to stay aware throughout the whole sleeping-cycle. This is because your conscious parts of the brain are shut down when you enter the deep sleep - stages. It's how we're hardwired I guess. You're asking a question like " Can I keep Dreamviews open if I shut down my computer?" Just wanted to subscribe to the thread because your question is pretty interesting. Waiting for more knowledgeable members to share insight. :)

Another valid question that you might want to contemplating over to your definition of sleep could be: Who or what is it that does goes to sleep?

You might have heard it before, but sleep is like a little death. You die to be reborn. A kind of reincarnation in other words.

Sleep is maintenance of the body and mind.

The reason why we're not conscious of everything that goes on during sleep is because generally in order to be conscious of something, it has to at least somewhat important to us. Experiencing everything that happens during sleep generally isn't important to us. It is possible to make it important, though, so it is possible to stay aware throughout all parts of sleep.

The reason why it's impractical to stay aware through all parts of sleep is because you by making everything you're experiencing important, you risk not relaxing enough to fall asleep in the first place. Taking this risk to experience the parts of sleep that are unnecessary to experience is what makes it impractical.

Some Buddhist monks can stay aware through the entirety of the night. This might be good for their dream yoga but wouldn't really be helpful for lucid dreamers. We get most of our REM sleep in the morning so that is when we should start WILD techniques. The reason it's not practical is because it would be very very difficult without any advantages. It would be pretty impressive although you would have no way to prove it.

I think it's certainly possible to remain conscious through sleep, and it's even possible to do so during the deep sleep stages. I believe this is what sleep yogas do. I've had a couple of rare apparent delta-sleep episodes of my own so far, but quite a lot of light-sleep NREM conscious periods. It's not necessarily easy to pull off, but it's possible.

I don't know enough about whether there are any disadvantages. I wouldn't think there would be too many unless you aren't comfortable with being conscious in these states or dislike it (I tend to enjoy it, myself). I haven't heard a lot of evidence that it makes sleep any less effective than it otherwise is without consciousness.