The aestivation hypothesis is a hypothesized solution to the Fermi paradox conceived in 2017 by Anders Sandberg, Stuart Armstrong and Milan M. Ćirković.
As the universe cools, the potential work producible by stored energy can increase by a multiplier of 1030 per Landauer's principle.
If the goal of an advanced civilization is to maximize the number of calculations done, to generate information processing for tasks like mass-producing simulations, then aestivation would be purposeful to achieve this end.
This runs counter to the knowledge that the Universe is filled with a very large number of planets, some of which likely hold the conditions hospitable for life.
Such civilizations may go through a time of exploration and then remain dormant until the conditions of the universe are more energetically favorable to best achieve their objectives.