I had thought about this weird question years ago (not sure if anybody
know the answer). What is the difference between (from an individual's
perspective) a dreamless sleep and death? Will an individual know the
difference?

Mmmm, wondered about that myself. How about this -- you die in your
sleep and your body is replaced by a programmed clone. You?d never
know.

Best

I've always said that death was like going to sleep and never waking
up.  No dreams, nothing.  Does't seem that there would be much of a
difference.

You're not the only person wondering.  Here's some interesting links:

Could I have some help on the subject of death please?
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=111434&page=3

Dreams and After Death States: The Invisible Worlds
http://www.blavatsky.net/talk/bnbasic/daily-journey.htm

Dreams and Death
http://www.dreamhawk.com/d-death.htm

SLEEP AND DREAMS
http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/dreams/SleepAndDreams.html

These search terms at Google bring up thousands of results for you to explore:

"dreamless sleep" death difference (8,840 results)
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22dreamless+sleep%22+death+difference&btnG=Google+Search

"difference between sleep and death" (195 results)
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=%22difference+between+sleep+and+death%22&btnG=Search

~~Cynthia

Throughout my life I have never remembered my dreams... however I have
always known that I've had them.  I wake up and remember that
something was going on and sometimes I've tried really hard to
remember what it was but to no avail.  Once in a while I'll have a
slight idea but it fades quickly and then it's completely gone within
a minute or so.

But there was 1 night I remember that was very different.  I fell
asleep and I suddenly opened my eyes.  I was awake but it seemed like
no time had passed.  It took me a little while to realize it was
morning and the sun was shining.  8 or 9 hours had passed but it
seemed like a moment to me.  I had no remembrance of having a dream
like I do every other morning of my life.

All this to say:  I think dreamless sleep is void.  I'm almost certain
that is what happend to me, I slept but did not dream; my mind simply
shut down for those hours until I woke.  So the passage of time seemed
instantaneous since the brain wasn't cranking.

I'm of the opinion that death is much different, but that is more a
religious debate than thoughts about sleeping so I won't go there.