system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do we hallucinate after prolonged periods of no sleep?
gpt
As an insomniac I've read a lot about this sort of thing. The truth is we don't really know about why we need sleep or the effects of sleep deprivation. The best answer we have for your question is that after a while your brain starts to force itself to sleep even though you're body won't let it. It starts shutting down and tries to enter a REM sleep phase even though your body is still up. If anyone has more info I'd love to hear it.