Why did they design the sleep mechanic like that?

sleeping in this game makes the time pass quicker. you close your eyes, screen goes black, and in real life your computer sets on fire

the game relies on simulated physics ofc so it's having to run a huge amount of complicated calculations at an extreme speed. even without the demand of having to render it visually, it's still a huge toll on your machine

so here's what i'm curious about. i'm not too well versed in game design or unity, but i'm assuming what the devs did is essentially just disable all meshes, set the play speed to some extreme number, and let the physics run their course

but why? what actually in this game requires that? if this were a game where there's a billion of different physics-based events the player could control thatd make a lot of sense, but aside from maybe sending the ship crashing into something at light speed, most of the events are practically predetermined arent they?

i'm sure i'm missing something here but what?