I’ve always dreamed pretty vividly and only experienced the “blink and wake up” thing with anesthesia, but everyone is different for sure. The brain is a super interesting electrical meat machine though.

It probably depends on how quickly you “go”. I’ve been under anesthesia twice and both times it’s like blinking and opening your eyes and you’re awake again. The second time it was slower for me to fully wake up, but I imagine if you die slowly, by freezing or drowning or something, your brain has more time to tell you a few calming stories. If you smack your head and you’re out immediately, or maybe if you’re in intense pain that causes you to black out, it’s probably more similar to just blinking and waking up.