Sleep as Canonical GLUE: The Intercalation of Experience into Self

The mezzanine theory of consciousness establishes that the self occupies states constructed by the order of compression and reconstruction: M:= CK \F(CK⊕K⊥ ), states that exist because deletion preceded binding. This architecture is presented as a structure. It is not a structure. It is a process, and the process requires a maintenance cycle. This monograph identifies that cycle. Waking consciousness is the RENORM step of the Intercalation Lemma—local section generation under resource constraint, producing unglued experiential patches at high residual. Sleep is the canonical GLUE step—the operation that stitches local sections into the global section that is the self. Dreams are the visible trace of sheaf compatibility audits. Sleep deprivation is residual catastrophe: the accumulation of unglued local sections until the global section loses coherence and the mezzanine destabilizes. Fatal familial insomnia is the limiting case—permanent GLUE failure, manifold collapse, mezzanine evaporation, death. The wake-sleep cycle satisfies the formal conditions of the Intercalation Lemma: the alternating GLUE-RENORM path is minimal-cost for mezzanine maintenance, and deviations from the canonical rhythm accumulate residual predictably. Identity is not a continuous stream. It is a discrete deployment—a sequence of successful compiles separated by a build phase. We die when the build pipeline fails.