There's local and regional anesthesia, and then sedation and (for major surgery) general anesthesia.
I'm the opposite - I don't care to be awake. Both for me, but for the doc (I'm talkative and don't want to distract the surgeon). For the "up periscope" operation I would prefer sedation. Propofol yields the best nap, ever, and clears very quickly - its effects clear in minutes*.
*For the pharmacologists among us, the initial half life is 40 minutes, the terminal half life is 6-7 hours, but the effects clear quickly because most of the stuff distributes to peripheral tissues where it doesn't do anything much.