Had a thought that consciousness might not even be an option, and that we may never be able to truly turn it off.
If that is the case, it creates the incentive to get more comfortable with it. To get better at appreciating and enjoying what we are conscious of.
“This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. ‘I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard,’ she told me. ‘In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously.’ Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, ‘This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness.’ Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. ‘I often talk to this tree,’ she said to me. I was startled and didn’t quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously I asked her if the tree replied. ‘Yes.’ What did it say to her? She answered, ‘It said to me, “I am here–I am here–I am life, eternal life.” ‘ ”
-Viktor E. Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning