Answers
Answers
[Cueball and Megan are talking.] Cueball: Humans are defined by our curiosity, our hunger for answers. Megan: We all spend a third of our lives lying down with our eyes closed and NOBODY KNOWS WHY. Cueball: Touché.

Cueball claims that humans are driven by their curiosity, which is never-ending. Megan responds by noting that everyone spends approximately eight hours per day in an unconscious state of sleep , but no one has yet pinned down the biological purpose of sleep. Despite this obvious mystery, most people aren't "losing sleep over it." This implies that Cueball's observed curiosity has a perceptible and proximate limit.
This is not to suggest that scientists aren't researching sleep; scientists frequently conduct sleep studies — we just haven't found any satisfactory answers yet. Some popular hypotheses are to allow the brain a period to consolidate memories and to give the body a chance to repair itself.
The title text quotes William Dement : people sleep "because we get sleepy." ( Secrets of sleep ). This of course is dodging the underlying issue. That this non-explanation is the best answer that a leading sleep researcher can provide, shows how little anyone knows about the subject. This may be an oblique reference to the dormitive principle of the French playwright Molière, who created a satirical character who claimed to have discovered the answer to a popular question: The reason opium makes someone sleepy, said the character, a doctor, was that it contained a "dormitive principle" (i.e., something that makes someone sleepy).
In 203: Hallucinations , Randall expressed similar surprise at the lack of interest in the nature of sleep.
The phrase "and nobody knows why" is commonly appended to urban legends, as in A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why . The implication is that something mysterious is going on and scientists are puzzled. 1186: Bumblebees is another "nobody knows why" example.
[Cueball and Megan are talking.] Cueball: Humans are defined by our curiosity, our hunger for answers. Megan: We all spend a third of our lives lying down with our eyes closed and NOBODY KNOWS WHY. Cueball: Touché.
