Digression: I've had dreams where I am a completely different person; different body, different personality, different memories, different family, etc... and it

Digression: I've had dreams where I am a completely different person; different body, different personality, different memories, different family, etc... and it's only upon waking up and reorienting myself to myself (whatever "myself" is) that I can relate to the dream self (such as "wow, I enjoyed being that other person, I wish I could be more like that in real life" or "I am disturbed to have experienced being that person, I don't want to be like that"). It creates weird questions... Does that person (or the possibility of that personality) exist independently of me, or is it made of me? Does that personality cease to exist upon waking, or is it "absorbed" into me? Where did "I" go when experiencing that other selfhood? What role (if any) does memory play in the continuation of consciousness?