My Macs all run 24/7. I restart to do upgrades, but even then I never shut them down.
What is the status of your machine when it is unattended?
I leave it logged in. The screen goes to sleep, and requires a password to wake. My Macs are all desktop models, since I've never seen any reason to pay the laptop tax. A thief would have to disconnect it from power, at which time it's logged out anyway (and requires a password to log in).
