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I have encountered this sentence:
Warum schläft der Mensch ein Drittel seines Lebens? Damit Hirn und Seele entspannen? Oder weil die Erde kahl wäre, gäbe der Allesfresser Mensch nicht zwischendurch Ruhe?
The bold sentence is what confusing me. Please do me two favors:
The noun Allesfresser is a Gattungsbezeichnung or Gattungsname (category designation, category name). It is used like ...
a profession,
Der Schuster Weingruber macht Schuhe. = The cobbler Weingruber makes shoes.
Der Dachdecker Petrovich deckt das Dach. = The roofer Petrovich covers the roof.
Der Bäcker Steininger bäckt Brot. = The baker Steininger bakes bread.
a nationality,
Der Russe Putin spricht russisch. = Putin, the Russian, speaks Russian.
Der Österreicher Kurz ist jung. = The Austrian Kurz is young.
Der Franzose Macron lebt in Paris. = Macron, a Frenchman, lives in Paris.
a denomination,
Der Katholik Krautwaschl ist Bischof. = Krautwaschl, a Catholic, is a bishop.
Der Jude Hofmeister ist Rabbiner. = The Jew Hofmeister is a rabbi.
Der Muslim Koleib ist Imam. = The Muslim Koleib is an Imam.
an illness,
Der Diabetiker Müller muss Medikamente nehmen. = Müller, a diabetic, has to take medication.
Der Epileptiker Hofmeister liegt im Spital. = Hofmeister, an epileptic, is in the hospital.
Der Alkoholiker Bauer ist in Behandlung. = Bauer, an alcoholic, is in treatment.
or a party affiliation.
Der Sozialdemokrat Scholz möchte Kanzler werden. = The Social Democrat Scholz wants to become chancellor.
Der Republikaner Trump wurde abgewählt. = Republican Trump was voted out of office.
Der Kommunist Marx schrieb ein Buch. = The communist Marx wrote a book.
This pattern is quite common in German, and as the examples show, it also exists in English, but is not as common in English as in German.
And here is the translation:
Why do people sleep for a third of their lives? So that brain and soul can relax? Or because the earth would be bare, would mankind, the omnivore not rest in between?
Maybe also
... would the omnivore man not rest in between?
Note, that this site is not a translation service. Translation requests are normally off topic, but in this case it makes sense to give you a correct translation.
A translation would be
Or because earth would be barren, if the omnivore humankind wouldn't rest once in a while.
"Allesfresser" is a normal noun here. I don't know the name of the construction, but basically it sets "Allesfresser" and "Mensch" equal. You can use the same contruction in English as I have done. It is similar to the phrase "der Maler Rembrandt": "the painter (called) Rembrandt".
I think that there is something worth adding to the answer given by @RoToRa, particularly as you ask for a literal translation into English.
I think that a close rendition into English — rather than a word-by-word attempt — must (i) deal with the words Allesfresser Mensch that you specifically asked about, and (ii) correctly capture the Konjunktiv II form of the second part of the sentence (which you didn't mention and which isn't properly captured in the answer of @RoToRa )
As, so often with language, the choices that one has in translation are often constrained by context, but they are sometimes expanded by the context because it gives one an opportunity to rely on what the speaker already knows. The sentence fragment that you quote appears, slightly changed, in the Aspekte Neu B2 Lehrbuch where the context is as follows :
Bis heute weiss die Wissenschaft nicht, warum der Mensch ein Drittel seines Lebens verschläft. Damit die Organe entspannen? Oder weil die Erde kahl wäre, gäbe der Allesfresser Mensch nicht zwischendurch Ruhe?
A close translation might be:
To this day, science does not know why humans slept away a third of their lives. To allow the body to recuperate? Or because the earth would be bare were the omnivores not to give it occasional rest.
Clearly this differs from any kind of word-for-word approach to the German sentence but I do think that it gives a more "complete understanding" (at least to a native English speaker) of what is being said in the German. Specific points:
I think that Allesfresser Mensch is better rendered in the context simply as omnivores. It is obvious that we are talking about humans. So, although the German could be rendered as ominvore humans (compound-noun and not humankind), or more likely, omnivorous humans (adjective noun), the word omnivores seems better.
... were the omnivores not to ... captures the Konjunktive II form of ... gäbe ... nicht ... .
... slept away a third ... is a better English rendition for verschläft than overslept. (Of course, in the quotation as you have given it, with the verb schlafen, ... slept a third ... would work just fine. The point about slept away is that it emphasizes the apparent waste.
One would be unlikely to read about resting "the organs" in an English translation; instead, unless there was specific evidence about how an organ such as the heart was affected by sleep, one would be more likely to read about "the body".
N.B. Thanks to Hubert Schölnast for highlighting an error in my terminology that detracted from the main point of my answer.
