Sequential Dependence in Consciousness: DD-Layer Reconstruction in Sleep, Dreams, and Anesthesia / 梦境、麻醉与意识的序贯依赖结构:SAE框架下的DD层重建分析

A theoretical paper proposes that consciousness transitions across the sleep-wake cycle can be explained by the sequential disassembly and reassembly of Dimensional Domain (DD) layers within the Self-as-an-End (SAE) framework. DD layers depend asymmetrically on lower layers, and sleep involves layer-by-layer deconstruction and reconstruction. Temporal mismatches in this process are argued to account for phenomena including hypnic jerks, sleep inertia, lucid dreams, sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, false awakenings, inability to run in dreams, incorporation of external stimuli into dreams, and rapid dream forgetting. General anesthesia is presented as a contrast case where layers are suppressed nearly synchronously, producing fewer mixed states than sleep. The paper provides a hypothesis activation matrix with evidence-tier annotations and three falsifiable predictions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper proposes a structural mapping model based on the DD (Dimensional Domain) layer sequence within the Self-as-an-End (SAE) framework, analyzing consciousness transition phenomena across the sleep-wake cycle. It argues that DD layers exhibit asymmetric bottom-up dependence, and that sleep operates as layer-by-layer disassembly/reassembly whose temporal mismatches account for hypnic jerks, sleep inertia, lucid dreams, sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, false awakenings, inability to run in dreams, external stimuli incorporation, and rapid dream forgetting. General anesthesia serves as a contrast case. The paper includes a hypothesis activation matrix with evidence-tier annotations and three falsifiable predictions. Bilingual Chinese-English edition.本文在Self-as-an-End(SAE)框架下,提出基于DD(Dimensional Domain)层级序列的结构映射模型,分析睡眠-觉醒循环中的意识转换现象。论文论证DD层之间存在自下而上的不对称依赖关系,睡眠作为DD层的逐层拆装过程,其时序错配可解释入睡抽动、睡眠惰性、清明梦、梦游、睡眠麻痹(鬼压床)、夜惊、假醒、梦中无法奔跑、外部刺激融入梦境、梦的快速遗忘等十余种现象。全身麻醉作为DD层近同步抑制的对照案例,其深维持期混合态远少于睡眠;诱导期(Guedel二期)和恢复期(术后谵妄)一旦出现异步性,混合态随即增加。论文提供带证据等级标注的DD层假说激活图谱,并给出三条可证伪预测。中英双语版。 Keywords Self-as-an-End; SAE; DD layers; consciousness; sleep; dreams; lucid dreaming; sleep paralysis; sleepwalking; anesthesia; sequential dependence; metacognition; night terrors; false awakening; sleep inertia Upload Type Publication — Preprint Publication Date 2026-03-22 Language zho (primary), eng (parallel version) License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Related Identifiers Is supplement to (SAE foundational papers): DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18528813 (SAE Paper 1: Systems, Emergence, and the Conditions of Personhood) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18666645 (SAE Paper 2: Internal Colonization and the Reconstruction of Subjecthood) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18727327 (SAE Paper 3: The Complete Self-as-an-End Framework) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18737476 (SAE Applied Paper 1: The Subjectivity Crisis in the Age of AI) References: DOI: 10.64898/2026.02.08.704730 (Hu et al., Asynchronous cortical recovery from sleep inertia, bioRxiv 2026)