Why is sleeping in your car frowned upon by officials in many countries?

This is one of the strangest principles and, in a few cases, even laws that exist in many countries. And that's that, for a reason that to this day I simply cannot comprehend, sleeping in your car is at a minimum frowned upon by law enforcement, and perhaps even illegal in some countries.

In the United States, if the cops get a call that someone is sleeping in a car, there are high chances that the cops will go there and start harassing the person, demanding his ID and making up all kinds of infractions and, at a very minimum, demand him to leave.

Why? I seriously have no idea.

And this is not exclusive to that country either. It seems that in most countries (at least the western ones), authorities behave in similar ways, at a very minimum considering it... I don't know... inappropriate? Suspicious? Dangerous maybe? Probably even the cops themselves don't know, they just have this strange notion that it's not ok to sleep in your car, period, and will make up reasons why you can't do that.

And that's not even going into the countries where it's outright illegal. Which is incomprehensible.

This is particularly incomprehensible because of the main reason why one would sleep in one's car. After all, driving while tired and sleepy is extraordinarily dangerous, and this is strongly emphasized everywhere, and pretty much every driver knows that.

So what do you do if you are sleepy while driving, still hours from your destination, and you have no idea where you could sleep, or even perhaps can't afford it? Well, it's easy: Just pull over and park somewhere where it's safe, far from traffic, and sleep in your car. Might not be the most comfortable place to sleep, but beats sleeping outside any time.

Much better than keep on driving while tired and sleepy. Not only is that dangerous to yourself, but to others on the road.

So why on earth is this frowned upon by officials in many countries? I literally have no idea. Do they honestly think that it's better to just keep on driving? Because that's pretty much exactly what they are telling those people: "You can't sleep in your car, keep driving." Which, of course, puts lives in danger.

It makes no sense.