Strict mode makes several changes to normal JavaScript semantics. First, strict mode eliminates some JavaScript silent errors by changing them to throw errors. Second, strict mode fixes mistakes that make it difficult for JavaScript engines to perform optimizations: strict mode code can sometimes be made to run faster than identical code that's not strict mode.
Strict mode simplifies how variable names map to particular variable definitions in the code. Many compiler optimizations rely on the ability to say that variable X is stored in that location: this is critical to fully optimizing JavaScript code. JavaScript sometimes makes this basic mapping of name to variable definition in the code impossible to perform until runtime. Strict mode removes most cases where this happens, so the compiler can better optimize strict mode code.
Strict mode makes it easier to write "secure" JavaScript. ... JavaScript in browsers can access the user's private information, so such JavaScript must be partially transformed before it is run, to censor access to forbidden functionality. JavaScript's flexibility makes it effectively impossible to do this without many runtime checks. Certain language functions are so pervasive that performing runtime checks has considerable performance cost. A few strict mode tweaks, plus requiring that user-submitted JavaScript be strict mode code and that it be invoked in a certain manner, substantially reduce the need for those runtime checks.