Art by smbc-comics
Consciousness is often said to disappear in deep, dreamless sleep. We argue that this assumption is oversimplified. Unless dreamless sleep is defined as unconscious from the outset there are good empirical and theoretical reasons for saying that a range of different types of sleep experience, some of which are distinct from dreaming, can occur in all stages of sleep.
Pubmed Articles
Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?
Sciencealert Article We Were Wrong About Consciousness Disappearing in Dreamless Sleep, Say Scientists
Well usually you wake up after each dream circle. You just don't remember it because you fall asleep almost instantly. That really was a problem when my father would wake me up in the morning and I couldn't remember him waking me up and slept for another half an hour)
Then I started with a dream journal. I don't do it anymore because I'm lazy, but I still remember waking up multiple times a night and remembering exactly what I just dreamed and notice the memory fading away.
When I journaled my dreams were extremely vivid. It isn't like this anymore but I still sometimes have lucid dreams even though I can't really stabilize and control them.