If you do a ctrl+f and search for this derepixelator I keep mentioning you’ll quickly get to where I’m basing a lot of this on. Claude explains the function of the DRP and has listed a few other important parts of the brain that are active during consciousness, normal REM sleep, conscious dreaming, etc. The DRP is active during waking life and shuts off during sleep to have a chance to recover, according to Claude. He also states that schizophrenia is essentially a disease of the DRP, so that schizophrenics are left without the ability to have continuity of thought, as if they’re dreaming. I personally notice that by the end of the week if I’ve been having many conscious dreams that I start to become edgy and have trouble concentrating, and this would make sense as I wouldn’t have recovered as much as needed, or I would have burned off some of what I gained from regular REM sleep. Then again, like you, my friend has never had a problem with it. Comparatively, he’s a person that feels refreshed after 7-8 hours of sleep, while I need 8-9 to feel well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯