Everpresent consciousness?

[Jonathan Bricklin]

Nanda Kumar, like almost everyone, I imagine, says:

"In deep sleep even the conciousness is absent."


Is there anyone else out there who has had the experience of feeling like
they were wrapped in a deep sleep except for the consciousness of staring
at blackness?  A week of this led me to question, as I did in a previous
post, whether all blackouts, including deep sleep, are not actually
black*ins*, in which the memory of all but the last moment is remembered.
At any rate I wonder if consciousness can ever be said to be truly absent.

Regards,

Jonathan Bricklin