It is exactly the same consciousness in waking, dreaming and in deep sleep - there is a switch deep in the brain that points to each in turn - but they congeal so differently into what seems a coherent pattern in each case. Think of the three as different resonances excited by the same wave, at any time all three are activated but only one predominates while the other two recede into the wings. In dream there is an awareness of being both character in and author of the play, of stagings created in response to a continually changing pattern of stresses; thinking is fast and effortless, events are light and pivot instantly, while in waking reality there is a sense of being trapped in one slowly evolving predicament, you are often pitted against your own mind and its flaws, you face impossibilities and are hopelessly determined, yet here the volitional joystick is placed in your hands and most of your energy goes into trying to manage it. In dreamless sleep the burden of selfhood is lifted and the state of being is immensely refreshing, all is dark and sweet, value itself is realised, and you part from this mode with some regret, there is no choice as to when it ends. Now imagine that these three are simultaneous, that you never leave one for another but merely shift focus. You can only do this exercise in the waking state, it is the only state where there is a knowledge of all three and some freedom in relation to them. Doesn't this describe what you have always known? Doesn't it answer to the peculiar unfathomability of waking moments, their endless non-coincidence with whatever descriptions you can give of them?