Wakefulness

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"Awake" redirects here. For other uses, see Awake (disambiguation).

Wakefulness refers to the state of being awake and is the behavioral manifestation of the metabolic state of catabolism. It is the daily recurring period in an organism's life during which consciousness, awareness and all behaviors necessary for survival, i.e., success in (Communication, ambulation, nutritional ingestion and procreation), are conducted. Being awake is the opposite of being asleep a behavioral manifestation of the daily recurring metabolic state of anabolism.

Animals can eat and run, fly, swim or walk while awake; humans can also talk, listen, write, read, perform arithmetic, and productively think and work in the awake state.

It is self-evident that the behaviors which take place while an organism is awake are necessary, complex and diverse. As sleep is biologically essential, an excess of time spent awake is considered sleep deprivation, and there are serious physiological and psychological consequences both for individual stretches of wakefulness and serial preference for wakeful activity rather than sleep.