Naively viewed, consciousness is a flimsy thing, something borrowed for temporary use. Its quality of expression varies tremendously depending on many mostly bodily factors. It has no identity, it can be lost and then found again and you never ask whether this is the same consciousness in play now as then, a time ago. Self on the other hand is about as solid as a rock. It could be blasted away, or split or shattered, it is not necessarily indestructible, but is generally quite reliable, its chief feature being absolute identity across time. If you ask whether 'you' are there during deep sleep, the obvious answer is yes, as proven on and by your awakening. You were simply for a time deprived of consciousness, that fickle animula. From this point of view the notion that what 'you' are is merely a certain structure or singularity of consciousness seems absurd. Consciousness is too flimsy a net to hold your weight. Furthermore, as self you are somehow not troubled by the duality of subject and object. All these problems arise from assuming that properties of consciousness are properties of the self, and for such a confusion to have arisen the prior mistake is to have lent to consciousness some of your being, an absurd move since consciousness has nowhere to put it.