The point I was making is that what Jesus was saying is that after we die we are in an unconscious state, just like being in a deep, dreamless sleep.
I don't see Jesus saying that at all with His raising of Lazarus. What I see when He told His disciples that Lazarus was only 'asleep' is a pointing to the existence of one's spirit-soul separate from dead flesh. And when His disciples were not going to understand that point, that is when Jesus finally told them that Lazarus was dead. But of course the truly 'main' purpose of the miracle was to reveal that flesh death is only a thing of this present world, and that is it not the end of life for the spirit-soul. Thus Jesus was good to us by giving us His Book of Revelation where He gave more detail on that very point, showing us truly when death of the spirit-soul will be, i.e., in the future "lake of fire" event after the "thousand years" of Revelation 20. Until then, none of the wicked perish forever yet, not even Satan and his angels.
So how long does it take for a Bible-believer to recognize that above lesson about one's spirit-soul continuing to have life after death of their flesh? I mean the Scripture about that is available to read, so how long does it take someone to actually recognize it?
I often wake up in the night and I have no idea what the time is. I don't know how long that I've been asleep for; sometimes I think it must be morning and time to get up, but when I look at the clock I see that I had only been sleeping for 2 or 3 hours and there is hours to go before I need to get up, and other times I wake up thinking I'd only just gone to sleep so it must be hours away from time to get up, but when I look at the clock I see that there's only 30 minutes to go before my alarm clock will go off. The death state that Jesus described as sleeping is just like that. We have no conscious thoughts and so no idea how much time has passed. People that died thousands of years ago and people that die the day before their resurrection will all have the same perception of passing time - they died (fell asleep) and they wake up when they are resurrected, and they (we) all will think that we have just been asleep for a short while.
That is the old Jewish idea of 'soul sleep'. There are certain Old Testament Scriptures that suggest that idea, however, there are more Bible Scriptures that show the detail of what really happens after our flesh dies, and some of that is even in The Old Testament Books too (like the 1 Kings 17 example of Elijah praying that the dead boys soul would come back into his body; and the Ecclesiastes 12:5-7 example about our flesh going back to the earthly elements where it came from, but our spirit going back to God Who gave it). In Matthew 10:28, Jesus made it plain that our soul is NOT killed if our flesh body is killed. So that means our soul-spirit both CONTINUE to have life even after death of our flesh body.
One of the problems in thinking the Jew's theory of soul sleep is how they dwell upon that Genesis 2:7 verse of how God created Adam a 'living soul'. They wrongly think the soul part is also of our flesh, and that after flesh death it sleeps with our flesh, and must be raised with our flesh at the resurrection. Our soul is not flesh, as like Jesus showed in Matthew 10:28. Also in John 3, Jesus made it plain that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of The Spirit is spirit. So we cannot just go claiming our soul-spirit is made up of material matter from this earth. By that Lord Jesus revealed the two separate dimensions of existence, this earthy, and the heavenly. They are two separate manifestations, and two distinct operations in God's creation, with one being material matter, and the other of Spirit only.
Our 'dream' state is NOT relative to how our spirit-soul manifests in that other dimension. Apostle Paul revealed this in 2 Corinthians 12 when he spoke of one who was caught up to Paradise, to the third heaven, and heard words not lawful to utter. Likewise in Isaiah 6, God opened up the Heavenly dimension to Isaiah's spirit while he was still alive in the flesh, and Isaiah thought he had died because of seeing God upon His Heavenly Throne. Did Isaiah see that per his flesh eyes? No, Isaiah saw that through his spirit that was inside his flesh. This is why Apostle John in Revelation 1 said he was in the Spirit on The Lord's day when he was shown those visions by Christ Jesus.
When we die our thoughts cease, just like being in a deep sleep.
No, that's a myth taught by those who think Solomon in Ecclesiastes was always pointing to no awareness after death of the flesh body. In Ecclesiastes 9, Solomon was actually contrasting "the dead" in the truly dead, those that will not rise, like the hybrid giant race which God destroyed by the flood. Isaiah 26:14 is about those 'dead' that shall not rise (not be resurrected at the resurrection). All born in the flesh are to have a resurrection on the day of Christ's future return, but not those hybrid giants, the Rephaim. That Isaiah 26:14 verse in the KJV translated their proper name Rephaim to "deceased". In other OT Scripture they properly translated to Rephaim, a name for a group of giants in Genesis. This is why Eccl.9 says the memory of those have perished, and they will have nothing more to do under the sun, etc. That is NOT about our loved ones that have died. It is about the 'ultimate' dead, those who literally are no more, forever. Thus many reading that Eccl.9 Scripture fail to recognize that, and think Solomon was always pointing to people in general.
There would be no point Jesus preaching to spirits (spirit beings) if they were asleep, in an unconscious state, so the spirits in prison can't be referring to souls of dead people.
That's just it, you are assuming... those "spirits in prison" are asleep, which is actually silly, since the Scripture says The Gospel was preached to them by Jesus once both 1 Peter 3 and 1 Peter 4 is read. So WHY are you going against those written Scriptures in favor of a false doctrine from men? Just so you can keep your flesh? You can forget your flesh once it dies. You won't ever need it anymore after that.
And by the way, the Isaiah 42:6-7 Scripture was prophecy that Jesus would go to the heavenly prison and lead those out of darkness there, at His first coming, pointing to His resurrection.
But Peter and Jude do refer to spirits (angels) being imprisoned, until their judgement - the angels mentioned in Genesis 6 that left their own "house" (Jude 1:6, Greek oiketerion) and took on human form (that's the same Greek word that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 5:2 - "desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven").
Firstly, the subject of 'preaching The Gospel' in 1 Peter 3 and 1 Peter 4 by Peter had nothing to do with his teaching in 2 Peter 2 about the wicked false prophets and angels that rebelled kept in chains until the judgment of the great day. I'm aware of the soul sleep false doctrine from men that you believe, which wrongly thinks the idea of a 'spirit' always means an angel or demon, which simply is not true per Scripture.
