Is there an active verb for being awake?
According to Merriam-Webster, you can use wake as an intransitive verb:
1 a : to be or remain awake
'He wakes' would be antonymous to 'He sleeps' and an active version of 'He is awake'. However, I've never heard it being used this way (contrary to definitions 1b, 1c and 2), and I'm not a native speaker, so I can't really comment on how it feels.