This is more difficult to explain than it seems. LOL!

Using the meditation example there's a short and contiguous span going from waking to meditative to waking mind states. If one does reach the true meditative state (no thought, no memory, no space, no time) there seems to still be awareness, even if it's of absence of experience. Why? Because I "know" I was in that state even if not knowing anything about it from the perspective of mind. To me the perception is a continuity of awareness regardless of its contents or lack thereof.

If awareness goes away with mind it seems to me the waking-meditative-waking experience would be waking-meditation warmup-waking.

Advaita uses the same example with deep and dreamless sleep, though I think the waters are a little more murky with REM & light sleep thrown in the mix as well as any wake-ups. An interesting experiment would be examining experience upon waking in the night, and one trick I learned from lucid dreaming for enhancing dream recall is upon waking remain still with eyes closed and mind at ease. Granted that last bit is for exercising dream recall but keeping the mind at rest is helpful for subtle examination of experience.

Advaita posits that's the very same "knowing" pervading/illumining all three states of mind - waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The "knowing" without which there would be no knowing.