Dark energy is an informational field. Consciousness writes novel information to it through the process of deep REM sleep. The rate at which the universe expands, driven by dark energy, coincides with the accumulation of that information. Once accumulation reached an inflection point, complex biology was able to flourish, leading to human consciousness: the universe's ultimate read/write observer. What follows builds that case from the Big Bang forward, across cosmology, evolutionary biology, sleep science, and consciousness theory. The disciplines are many, but the mechanism is one.