We believe that sleepwalking is a rare occurrence that happens to very few people.  In truth, we are all sleepwalking, and not just at night or on rare occasions, but in broad daylight, nearly all the time.  We are walking around in a dream world believing the dream to be reality and the true reality to be dreams or fantasies.  Fortunately, in recent years some people are waking up to the fact that there is something beyond the dream world called the material universe.  And, as more of us awaken to varying degrees, the vibration rate of all this change is making it easier for others to awaken.
    So how did we get in this state?  Hypnosis.  It's that simple.  We have not all been to a professional hypnotist, or had our brains programed by the machines form "The Matrix", but we have been hypnotized nonetheless.  
    It started when we were babies and our well meaning, but also hypnotized parents, taught us about the world around us.  Once we could talk and saw things they couldn't see, they would say things like "What an imagination" hinting that what we saw was not real.  Other relatives and older siblings contributed to this hypnotic programming as well.  
    Then we went off to school and the teachers, also hypnotized, added their contribution.  They had us focus on what is "real", that is, what is real to them which is actually the greatest of illusions.  We were repeatedly discouraged from seeing things they couldn't see and having imaginary friends.
    In addition to actual people, there is the influence of television and movies that further promote the illusion.  So just like a commercial convinces you after seeing it fifty, seventy, or 100 times to buy a product you had no interest in the first time you saw the commercial, this repeated effort to convince us that the material world is the only thing real succeeds through a form of hypnosis.  No professional needed.  Just repeat something enough times until the person is convinced that it's true.
    So how do we wake up?  Well, if you read this far, you have probably already started.  Next, don't accept that just because someone says something that it is true, or that it is the only truth.  Start reading about spiritual development (I, of course, recommend the books of Gene Savoy and the poetry/philosophy of Gibran).  If you are more scientifically oriented, than study Quantum Mechanics, especially those books that show how the discoveries of Quantum Mechanics are revealing truths that spiritual schools have been teaching for thousands of years, though with different terminology.  When you are really ready to wake up, get a trained spiritual teacher to help.

End the sleep which weighs heavy on you.  Depart from the forgetfulness which fills you with darkness.
(from The Teachings of Silvanus)