§1 Introduction: Why Can Consciousness Be Taken Apart?

Every day, every human being undergoes something remarkable: consciousness shuts down completely and then restores itself. The process takes hours and passes through multiple states, occasionally producing puzzling anomalies — sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming. These phenomena have long been studied as isolated curiosities, without a unifying framework.

The starting observation is straightforward. If consciousness were an indivisible whole, these anomalies would be hard to account for. A sleepwalker navigates stairs and opens doors but has no awareness of doing so. A lucid dreamer knows the dream is a dream but cannot move. Someone experiencing sleep paralysis sees the real bedroom ceiling while simultaneously seeing a shadow figure that does not exist. What these states share is that different functions of consciousness can be independently switched on or off, and the timing of these switches can be asynchronous.

The Self-as-an-End (SAE) framework^[1][2][3] provides a set of tools for describing this layered structure. SAE derives, from first principles, a 16-level DD (Dimensional Domain) sequence in which each layer depends on the layers below it and provides support for those above. This paper focuses on the interval from 9DD to 14DD — from basic stimulus selection to autonomous purpose-setting.

The primary analytical material consists of naturally occurring consciousness state transitions: sleep, awakening, and dreaming. General anesthesia is included as a pharmacological contrast case that offers what sleep cannot — near-synchronous DD-layer suppression and recovery. This choice is not only methodological but also normative. SAE takes "the person as an end" as its foundational principle. The aim of analyzing the natural structure of consciousness is to understand human beings, not to engineer tools for their manipulation.

§2 The Working Interval: DD Layers 9 through 14

2.1 Life-Sustaining Layers (5DD–8DD): Not Involved in Consciousness Switching

In the SAE framework, 5DD through 8DD cover the basic functions of life: replication (5DD), self-maintenance (6DD), differentiation (7DD), and reproductive law (8DD). These layers do not shut down during sleep. Cells continue dividing, metabolism runs, temperature is regulated, the immune system operates. They constitute the hardware prerequisite for consciousness but are not the subject of this paper. The very fact that sleep leaves them intact tells us something: what sleep switches off is not life, but the conscious architecture built on top of life.

2.2 The Consciousness Layers (9DD–14DD): The Battlefield of Dream Phenomena

DD Layer	Name	Core Function	Typical Dream Manifestation
9DD	Selection	Basic approach/avoidance response	Sleepwalker avoids obstacles
10DD	Perception	Sensory input and motor output (with sub-channels)	Sleep paralysis: input on / output off
11DD	Memory	Encoding, storage, retrieval (procedural / episodic sub-layers)	Procedural memory runs independently in sleepwalking
12DD	Predictive Law	Causal prediction, automated behavioral scripts, narrative construction	Dream narratives, false awakening simulations
13DD	Self-awareness	Metacognitive monitoring of one's own state	"I know I am dreaming" in lucid dreams
14DD	Purpose	Autonomous will, goal-setting, directional action	Actively controlling the dream in lucid states

9DD — Selection. The lowest consciousness function: approach-or-avoid responses to stimuli. No reflection required, no memory needed — just an immediate good/bad evaluation loop.

10DD — Perception. Reception and integration of sensory input. Crucially, 10DD includes both input and output sub-channels. Input covers the reception of environmental information (vision, hearing, touch, proprioception); output covers the dispatch of motor commands. This distinction becomes critical in the analysis of sleep paralysis.

11DD — Memory. Encoding, storage, and retrieval of experience. 11DD also contains sub-layers: procedural memory (how to ride a bicycle, how to climb stairs) and episodic memory (what happened yesterday, who I am) follow different encoding and retrieval mechanisms. Sleepwalking will reveal that these two sub-layers can be independently regulated.

12DD — Predictive Law. A pivotal layer. 12DD is not simple memory retrieval but a causal prediction structure that emerges from 10DD perception and 11DD memory. It encompasses automated behavioral scripts, narrative construction, and anticipatory models of environmental change. The defining feature of 12DD is autonomous operation — it runs without requiring self-awareness, continuously generating predictions and narratives.

13DD — Self-awareness. Metacognitive monitoring of one's own state. "I know what I am doing. I know what I am thinking. I know I am dreaming." 13DD is not perception itself but the perception of perception; not prediction itself but the scrutiny of prediction. It is a recursive layer: it takes the output of lower layers as its object and evaluates them.

14DD — Purpose. Autonomous will, goal-setting, directional action. "I am going to do this." 14DD depends on the self-awareness provided by 13DD and uses it to set goals and drive behavior.

2.3 Core Claims

The theoretical claims of this paper compress into three:

• Higher DD layers depend on lower ones as their operational base. 14DD cannot run when 13DD is absent; 13DD cannot sustain itself when 10DD–12DD are all shut down. This is an asymmetric relationship: upward-dependent, downward-independent.
• DD layers can be independently regulated at a fine granularity — producing mosaic activation patterns. Even sub-channels within a single DD layer (such as the input and output channels of 10DD) can be separately regulated.
• Mismatched activation produces anomalous consciousness states. When a DD layer comes online before the layers it depends on are ready, or when a layer that should be offline remains anomalously active, the result is one of the many sleep-related anomalies humans report.

§3 The Shutdown Sequence: Falling Asleep

3.1 Normal Sleep Onset: Top-Down Layer-by-Layer Shutdown

The first to go is 14DD (purpose). The will to act fades. The thought "I should get up and brush my teeth" grows weaker until action becomes impossible. This is not forgetting — it is 14DD's drive powering down.

Next is 13DD (self-awareness). One stops monitoring one's own state, stops questioning what is happening. The random images that appear at the edge of sleep (hypnagogic imagery), which waking 13DD would flag as hallucinations, are accepted without scrutiny.

12DD (predictive law) then enters free-running mode. Without 14DD's directional constraint and 13DD's oversight, it begins producing unstructured associations and narrative fragments — the nature of "mind wandering" before sleep.

Finally, 10DD (perception) closes the input channel. External sounds and light gradually leave awareness. This top-down sequence (14→13→12→10) forms an approximate mirror of the awakening sequence (10→12→13→14).

3.2 Hypnic Jerks: Timing Mismatch in the Shutdown Sequence

During the shutdown sequence, the vestibular system and proprioceptive perception (a sub-channel of 10DD) begin producing distorted signals or ceasing input. The brain registers an absence of positional information. Meanwhile, the motor control sub-channel of 10DD has not yet fully relinquished control. The brain misreads "positional signal missing" as "falling," and the motor system fires a protective reflex — a violent whole-body contraction.

Small as it is, the hypnic jerk foreshadows the central claim of this paper: timing mismatches between DD layers produce anomalous conscious experiences. The hypnic jerk is the mildest version; sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and lucid dreaming are more extreme variations of the same mechanism.

§4 The Reconstruction Sequence: Awakening

4.1 Neuroscience Evidence

Waking up is not a switch being flipped. Stephan et al. (Current Biology), analyzing over 1,000 awakenings using high-density EEG, found that the brain orchestrates a precise activation sequence.^[4] Waking from non-REM sleep involves a brief burst of slow-wave activity followed by faster wake-related activity; waking from REM sleep skips the slow-wave phase.

Hu et al. (2026, bioRxiv) tracked EEG recovery trajectories at 20-second resolution in 44 participants awakening from deep NREM sleep.^[5] Frontal low-frequency activity (delta/theta) returned to baseline within minutes, while posterior high-frequency activity (alpha/beta) remained altered for longer — a "frontal-first, posterior-last" asynchronous reboot gradient. Balkin et al. (2002) provided complementary PET evidence: cerebral blood flow recovers earliest in the brainstem and thalamus, then later in anterior cortical regions.^[6]

4.2 DD-Layer Mapping

First to return are 9DD (selection) and 10DD (perception) — body awareness, spatial and temporal orientation — corresponding to the priority recovery of the brainstem and thalamus. Next are 11DD (memory) and 12DD (predictive law): identity, episodic memory, daily scripts. Last are 13DD (self-awareness) and 14DD (purpose): reflective self-examination and active planning.

This bottom-up sequence (9–10→11–12→13–14) forms an approximate mirror of the top-down shutdown sequence. Layers that shut down early tend to recover late.

4.3 Sleep Inertia and Morning Irritability

This explains a common retrospective experience: after a bout of morning irritability, people often feel "that wasn't like me." In DD-layer terms, this is accurate. The "me" is a complete self-model constructed with 13DD and 14DD participation. When those layers have not yet come online, the person acting is not the full self — it is a low-DD-driven reaction system lacking higher-layer modulation.

§5 Mismatched Activation: Dream Anomalies

5.1 Ordinary Dreams: The Baseline

In ordinary dreams: 10DD (perception) runs in endogenous generation mode — external input channels are closed but the brain autonomously produces sensory content. 11DD (memory) outputs material in fragmented fashion. 12DD (predictive law / narrative construction) weaves the material into local coherence but with global jumps and contradictions. 13DD (self-awareness) is offline — one does not question the dream's absurdity. 14DD (purpose) is offline — one is carried along by whatever narrative 12DD generates.

Every anomaly discussed below is a departure from this baseline profile.

5.2 Lucid Dreaming: 13DD Anomalously Online

Dresler's team (2012) completed the only fMRI scan to date of an actively lucid dreaming brain, finding enhanced activation in regions normally suppressed during REM — including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and bilateral frontopolar areas — core regions associated with metacognition.^[8] Filevich et al. (2015) found frequent lucid dreamers have significantly larger anterior prefrontal cortex volume (Brodmann Area 9/10) and higher activity in these regions during metacognitive tasks while awake.^[9] Baird et al. (2018) found increased resting-state functional connectivity between frontopolar cortex and temporoparietal association areas in frequent lucid dreamers.^[10]

The 2×2 matrix captures the relationship between these states:

	10DD Motor/Body: On	10DD Motor/Body: Off
13DD Self-awareness: On	Normal waking	Lucid dreaming
13DD Self-awareness: Off	Sleepwalking	Ordinary dreaming

5.3 Sleepwalking: 12DD and Below Running Independently

9DD Selection: On. Sleepwalkers avoid furniture and navigate obstacles. 10DD Perception: Partially on. Environmental information is received but not fully conscious — autopilot-level processing. 11DD Memory: Split. Procedural and spatial memory run (familiar routes, automated sequences), but episodic encoding is shut down — no memory is retained afterward. 12DD Predictive Law: On. The complex motor sequences are solidified automated prediction structures. 13DD Self-awareness: Very low or absent. 14DD Purpose: Very low or absent.

5.4 Sleep Paralysis: DD-Layer Mosaic Activation

Sleep paralysis demonstrates that DD layers can be independently regulated at much finer granularity than binary on/off.

10DD Perception — Input channel on, output channel off. Real sensory input is available, but REM atonia locks the motor output channel. This is not 10DD globally on or off — it is an input/output split within a single DD layer. Emotional activation — High, predominantly fear. Two sources: situational fear and residual REM amygdala activation. 10DD Endogenous generation — Still active. Dream sensory content and real perception are superimposed in the same conscious space with equal apparent reality. 12DD Narrative construction — On, without 13DD verification. Raw, unvetted causal attributions: "something is pressing on me," "a ghost." 13DD Self-awareness — Partially online but verification-insufficient. The person knows they are in their bedroom, but 13DD's source-monitoring capacity cannot effectively override the 12DD narrative. 14DD Purpose — Off.

5.5 Night Terrors vs. Nightmares: Different DD Layers of Emotional Eruption

Nightmares occur during REM sleep: full narrative content (12DD running), remembered after waking (11DD encoding active), centered on "a frightening story." Their DD profile is essentially ordinary dreaming plus emotional over-activation.

Night terrors occur during deep NREM sleep: raw fear and autonomic response (racing heart, screaming, sitting upright), typically no narrative content, no memory retained. The typical night terror DD profile is strikingly sparse: emotional eruption with narrative construction and self-awareness at very low levels.

Night terrors and sleep paralysis form an instructive contrast: sleep paralysis has narrative but no movement (12DD on, motor output off); night terrors have movement but no narrative (motor output on, 12DD very low). Both involve intense emotional activation in entirely different DD-layer contexts.

5.6 Sleep Talking: Partial Activation of Language Sub-Layers

Sleep talk content is frequently fragmented and illogical, sometimes producing complete sentences but out of context. Language contains multiple sub-layers from low to high: phonation, lexical selection, syntactic assembly, semantic coherence, and pragmatic appropriateness. Research (notably Arnulf et al.) shows sleep talking can sometimes approach waking-level grammar and turn-taking. Sleep talking demonstrates the separability of language sub-layers — different episodes activate different combinations, forming a continuum from unintelligible mumbling to near-waking-level dialogue.

5.7 False Awakenings: High-DD Simulation Replacing Low-DD Verification

In a false awakening, 12DD (narrative construction) successfully simulates a complete "normal awakening" sequence — bedroom, bathroom, daily routines, self-identity — but 10DD's real sensory input and motor output are not actually engaged. Without 13DD oversight, 12DD may not only produce the narrative script but also coordinate 10DD's endogenous engine to generate matching sensory qualia (the temperature of water, the taste of toothpaste, the feel of floor underfoot).

Dreams within dreams are the extreme version. 13DD attempts to come online, producing the judgment "I am dreaming," but this judgment is itself captured by 12DD and woven into a new narrative layer. Only when low-DD real sensory feedback finally comes online can 13DD obtain a verification source independent of 12DD's narrative, achieving genuine awakening.

5.8 Inability to Run or Scream in Dreams: Motor Feedback Leaking into Narrative

A motor command is issued within the dream narrative, but no normal muscle feedback signal is received — because REM atonia is in effect. This feedback absence is interpreted by 12DD's narrative construction as dream content: not "my body can't move" (which would require 13DD's metacognitive judgment) but "my legs are too heavy to run" or "my voice is blocked."

This pairs perfectly with sleep paralysis. The underlying physiology is identical (REM atonia), but a single-variable difference — whether 13DD is online — produces two completely different subjective experiences.

5.9 External Stimuli Incorporated into Dreams

This occurs during the awakening transition. 10DD's input channel begins receiving real external signals (alarm sound, voice), but 12DD's narrative construction is still in dream mode. 12DD receives the signal but incorporates it into the current dream narrative rather than attributing it to external reality — the alarm becomes a telephone ring or school bell, depending on which sound fits the ongoing narrative.

5.10 Rapid Dream Forgetting: Cross-Configuration Encoding Incompatibility

Dream content is encoded under a special DD configuration: low prefrontal participation (13DD offline), high amygdala activation, hippocampal encoding mode different from waking. Upon waking, the DD configuration switches back — 13DD comes online. Retrieval now faces a mismatch: encoding-time DD context does not match retrieval-time DD context. In SAE terms: constructs generated within a specific DD background become incompatible with a new background, and retrieval pathways break.

This explains why immediately writing down or narrating a dream preserves it. The act actively translates dream content from "sleep-DD encoding" to "wake-DD encoding." This translation has a narrow time window: in the first minutes after awakening, cross-configuration information transfer remains possible. Once the window closes, dream content becomes inaccessible.

§6 Hypothesis Activation Matrix

Evidence-tier annotations: ▲ = direct neuroscience literature support; △ = SAE-framework theoretical inference, compatible with but not directly measured by existing evidence; ○ = highly speculative.

Phenomenon	9DD Selection	10DD Perception	11DD Memory	12DD Predictive Law	13DD Self-awareness	14DD Purpose
Normal waking	On ▲	On ▲	On ▲	On △	On ▲	On △
Falling asleep	Fading △	Fading ▲	Fading △	Free-run→off △	Early off △	Earliest off ○
Ordinary dream	Low △	Endogenous ▲	Fragmented ▲	Free recombo △	Off ▲	Off △
Lucid dream	Low △	Endogenous ▲	Fragmented ▲	Free recombo △	On ▲	Can follow △
Sleepwalking	On △	Partial △	Procedural on / episodic off △	On (automated) △	Very low △	Very low ○
Sleep paralysis	—	Input on / output off + endogenous on ▲	Long-term avail. / encoding off △	On, no verification △	Partial / insufficient △	Off △
Night terror	On (motor burst) ▲	Very low △	Very low △	Very low △	Off △	Off △
Nightmare	Low △	Endogenous ▲	Fragmented △	On (emotion-driven) △	Off △	Off △
False awakening	Off ○	Endogenous coord. by 12DD ○	Procedural on △	Highly active ○	Off or pseudo-on ○	Off ○
Hypnic jerk	On (reflex) ▲	Distorted △	—	Misjudgment △	Fading ○	Off ○
Sleep talking	—	—	Fragmented △	Partial (language sub-layers) △	Off △	Off △
Can't run in dream	—	Endogenous + feedback absent △	—	Woven into narrative △	Off △	Off △
External stimuli	—	External signal entering ▲	—	Attribution hijacked △	Off △	Off △
Awakening (inertia)	On ▲	Recovering ▲	Recovering ▲	Recovering △	Last on ▲	Last on △

Three structural features deserve special attention. First, 13DD is the most critical watershed — its presence or absence distinguishes lucid from ordinary dreaming, fear from calm in sleep paralysis, and narrativized "I can't run" from meta-aware "I can't move." Second, 12DD is the last layer that can run without self-awareness — the behavioral boundary of sleepwalking and the simulation capacity of false awakenings both fall precisely at the 12DD–13DD line, a qualitative transition from automatic execution to recursive self-scrutiny. Third, sub-channel splits within DD layers (10DD input/output, 11DD procedural/episodic) are necessary conditions for the more complex mosaic states.

§7 Contrast Case: Anesthesia

7.1 DD-Layer Characteristics of Anesthesia

General anesthesia differs fundamentally from sleep: it is a pharmacological near-synchronous suppression of multiple consciousness layers simultaneously. Anesthetic agents (propofol, sevoflurane) broadly inhibit cortical and thalamic activity, causing consciousness functions to be lost far more rapidly and synchronously than during natural sleep onset.

Even within this rapid suppression, traces of hierarchical gradient are detectable. Propofol achieves loss of consciousness primarily by disrupting anterior-posterior functional connectivity, with frontal (higher-order) regions typically failing before posterior sensory cortex — a "higher-order first" pharmacological signature consistent with the DD-layer model's structure.

7.2 Deep Maintenance: Why Mixed States Are Fewer Than in Sleep

Deep anesthetic maintenance does not produce sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, or lucid dreaming. The key variable is the size of the asynchrony window. In sleep, DD-layer shutdown and reconstruction span minutes to tens of minutes, creating ample mismatch windows. In deep anesthetic maintenance, DD-layer suppression is highly overlapping and the window is extremely compressed. Smaller window, fewer misalignments. (The small number of "intraoperative awareness" reports reflects inadequate anesthetic depth — a distinct mechanism from DD-layer misalignment.)

7.3 Guedel Stage II: A Historical-Clinical Analogy

In Guedel's classical four-stage classification (ether era), Stage II — the "stage of excitement" or delirium — involves the patient losing self-awareness while subcortical motor centers are not yet fully suppressed, producing brief struggling and involuntary movement. Structurally, this resembles a window in which low DD layers continue running independently after high DD layers have shut down. Modern fast-acting agents (propofol) significantly compress this window, making it clinically near-unobservable — Guedel Stage II is therefore a historical-clinical analogy rather than direct empirical verification.

7.4 Emergence Delirium: Recovery-End Cross-Validation

Emergence delirium occurs during anesthetic recovery: transient confusion, disorientation, agitation, emotional dysregulation, occasional hallucinations. Its occurrence coincides precisely with moments when uneven drug metabolism produces differential recovery speeds across brain regions — some DD layers recovering while others remain suppressed. This mirrors sleep inertia and sleep paralysis.

7.5 Summary Pattern

Sleep: large asynchrony windows → abundant misalignment phenomena. Deep anesthetic maintenance: minimal asynchrony windows → very few mixed states. Anesthetic induction/emergence: brief reintroduced asynchrony → mixed states promptly increase. This pattern is consistent with the DD sequential dependence model's prediction that asynchrony window magnitude correlates positively with misalignment degree.

§8 Theoretical Discussion

8.1 The Nature of DD-Layer Dependence

The phenomenological analysis is consistent with a structural hypothesis: DD layers exhibit asymmetric dependence. Higher DD layers require lower DD layers as their operational base, but lower DD layers can run independently when higher layers are absent. Sleepwalking shows 9DD–12DD sustaining complex behavior when 13DD–14DD are severely impaired. Lucid dreaming shows 13DD depending on at least some lower DD layers. Sleep inertia shows higher DD recovery tending to follow lower DD recovery. The reverse never holds — no sleep phenomenon demonstrates 14DD or 13DD operating in complete isolation from 9DD–10DD.

8.2 Fine Structure Within DD Layers

The 10DD input/output split makes sleep paralysis possible. The 11DD procedural/episodic split makes sleepwalking possible. Multi-level language structure makes sleep talking show characteristic partial activation. These findings suggest DD layers are not indivisible atomic units but composite structures containing sub-layers and sub-channels. An important distinction: DD-layer operating mechanisms are universal, but the content of the constructs they carry is culturally and individually acquired. DD layers are form; constructs are matter. Form is universal; matter is local.

8.3 The 12DD→13DD: The Critical Boundary

Across all phenomena analyzed, the boundary between 12DD and 13DD repeatedly emerges as the most critical divide. The 12DD-to-13DD transition is a qualitative shift from automatic execution to recursive self-scrutiny. However complex 12DD becomes, it is executing, not examining. 13DD introduces a new dimension: the system begins to take its own operation as an object of observation.

In waking life: habitual behavior (driving home without thinking) is 12DD running. Suddenly noticing "what was I just thinking about?" is 13DD intervening. Extended absorption in work that erases awareness of time and self ("flow state") may be 13DD temporarily yielding control to 12DD.

8.4 Why DD-Layer Reconstruction "Must" Be Sequential

Why can't DD layers reconstruct synchronously? Each DD layer's startup appears to depend on the layer below providing initial conditions. If all layers start simultaneously, each lacks the initial input it needs. The analogy is an operating system boot sequence: BIOS before OS kernel, kernel before drivers, drivers before user interface — not by preference but because each step's execution depends on the previous step's completion.

From SAE's remainder theory: misalignment phenomena are the remainder of the structural constraint of sequential reconstruction. They cannot be eliminated because the condition producing them — inter-layer dependence — is an intrinsic property of consciousness structure itself. Sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming — their very existence is evidence that consciousness has hierarchical structure.

8.5 Brief Positioning Against Existing Consciousness Theories

The DD-layer framework does not aim to replace existing sleep science explanations but adds a unifying hierarchical structure. Against major consciousness theories: Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) theory proposes consciousness arises from information broadcast across the frontoparietal network — 13DD's metacognitive function corresponds to the workspace's "ignition," while the DD framework adds that prior to ignition, lower-dependency layers (9DD–12DD) can operate independently. Integrated Information Theory (IIT) focuses on integrated information (Φ); the DD framework focuses on the direction and temporal ordering of inter-layer dependence. Higher-Order Thought (HOT) theory defines consciousness as higher-order representations of first-order mental states — closely paralleling 13DD recursively scrutinizing 12DD output.

8.6 Limitations

• The mappings of 9DD and 12DD are speculative. 13DD (metacognition) has direct neuroscience evidence; the neural localization of 9DD and 12DD is less clear — inferred from behavior, not directly observed via neuroimaging.
• DD-layer numbers do not map one-to-one onto neuroanatomical regions. The mapping is many-to-many.
• NREM parasomnia consciousness levels show gradient variation. The discretized annotations in the hypothesis matrix are simplifications of typical presentations.
• Causal direction requires caution. This paper shows covariation between DD-layer activation states and subjective experience, but strictly this is correlation rather than causation.
• This is a model-building paper, not an empirical verification paper.

8.7 Falsifiable Predictions

Prediction One: Stage-Specific Controllability of DD-Layer Misalignment. Precisely controlling awakening timing (deep NREM vs. REM vs. light NREM) should systematically induce different DD-layer misalignment patterns. Awakening from deep NREM should produce more severe sleep inertia (greater high-DD recovery delay), while REM awakening should more readily trigger sleep-paralysis-like experiences (due to REM atonia residue). Testable using Stephan et al.'s high-density EEG paradigm combined with staged awakening experiments.

Prediction Two: 13DD Recovery Speed in Lucid Dreamers. During awakening, frequent lucid dreamers should show measurably faster recovery of prefrontal metacognition-related activity (gamma band, frontopolar BOLD signal) compared to non-lucid dreamers — reflecting a more flexible or lower-threshold 13DD activation mechanism.

Prediction Three: 10DD Endogenous Activation Pattern in False Awakenings. If false awakenings involve 12DD coordinating 10DD's endogenous engine, visual cortex activation patterns during false awakening episodes should differ from ordinary dreaming — more "organized generation following a narrative script" than "random fragmented activation." Detectable through high-density EEG time-frequency analysis or fMRI visual cortex connectivity patterns.

§9 Conclusion

This paper has proposed a unified structural mapping model, based on the SAE framework's DD-layer sequence, for more than a dozen consciousness transition phenomena related to sleep and dreaming. All phenomena can be understood as different activation configurations of a single underlying structure — DD-layer sequential dependence. Awakening sequences, sleep inertia, and hypnic jerks illustrate orderly DD-layer reconstruction and shutdown. Lucid dreams, sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, and false awakenings illustrate the diversity of DD-layer misalignment. Anesthesia serves as a contrast case. Three falsifiable predictions provide direction for future empirical testing.

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