by the title of this thread, "inquiring", inquiry is a process of the mind, one of its true purposes in my understanding when undertaken along with the heart bringing one to spiritual peace
It can't be said to 'exist'... but it could the exact opposite. It is more like a revelation that you have absolutely no CLUE as to who you are, for one burning second . Some can summon that state by asking from deep within "who am I?". It takes an unbelievable ammount of psychic energy, so one must first be very well rested.
When you abandon the mind there is no time. Jedi, According to John Levy and his book on Vedanta, dreamless sleep is the absence of subject and object and is, in fact, a state of non-dual existence where the ground of all being is encountered. This non-dual state is also encountered between each conscious moment that exists during the waking state as each thought must have a beginning, end, and space between the next arising thought. Therefore the dreamless state is a constant ground condition of thought, and we are, in reality, in a mindless state at all times.
The enlightened live in that state of awareness, but for us sleepwakers, and yet even the self- aware inquire constantly "who am I"?