Why can’t we go to sleep on demand like how we are controlling other parts of the body?

Question

We can stop breathing when we want to. We can also “tell” our body to do what we want such as moving, holding, typing, etc. So why can’t we just “tell” our brain to go to sleep immediately instead of having to wait for it to fall asleep.

In: 826

Answer 1

Try not breathing for more than 5 minutes. You’ll see you cannot stop breathing when you want to.
There are many more processes going on in your body that happen separately from consciousness. Take embryo development, all of that happens without the mother’s consciousness, it’s not a skill, and certainly something you can’t control with your mind. So body functions are a different realm from consciousness.