I think that you should analyze and clarify your values before proposing solutions.
The entire point of my attempt to work through this problem was to analyze and clarify my values. Specifically, I was attempting to determine if the common-sense value that “harming sleeping people is just as bad as harming conscious people” in any way conflicted with the preference-utilitarianism-type ethical system I subscribe to. I concluded that it probably didn’t, because a person can be said to have “preferences” or “values” even while unconscious.
The entire point of my attempt to work through this problem was to analyze and clarify my values. Specifically, I was attempting to determine if the common-sense value that “harming sleeping people is just as bad as harming conscious people” in any way conflicted with the preference-utilitarianism-type ethical system I subscribe to. I concluded that it probably didn’t, because a person can be said to have “preferences” or “values” even while unconscious.