I like the idea introduced by some French(?) existentialists(sorry, not my field, I study linguistics and language), of us "building" our self every morning. In a nutshell, as we are waking up, we click our consciousness on and have to come to terms with it. I assume there's a wealth of terminology I'm missing, but I like the twist this idea gives to the issue of what is consciousness: Do we retain "ourselves" every time we pass out or sleep, or does every morning bring "a new you"? Of course, our memories and the behavioural schemata(at least I could remember that) we've been ingrained with are carried over every time, at least for the most part, but who is to say that they construct the same person every time?
Without going into the apathy that this kind of thinking might rise(who are we really? Shards of something really vague?)I think the idea is actually a hopeful one: In a way, we are given a new opportunity every morning, we retain the memories, but have a chance to study them anew and maybe even excel, become a better person.