I agree, it is a dream, not much different from the nocturnal dream created in sleep, but perhaps less chaotic. Or rather, the physical world is real, but man projects meaning, significance and emotions into it, making it illusory and deceptive (precisely for this, interesting and irreplaceable to many).
Dreams are a tentative construction of meaning from our minds with the pieces of data we perceive in the waking world. We can't dream about what we haven't perceived.
It is true. If daily reality is a dream of the first degree, the nocturnal one is a dream squared, a dream of a dream. However the former is a shared illusion, "la folie des masses", a madness badly cloaked in rationality and consistency.
I believe that reality is its own object, free from perception. I also believe that there's a common perception shared between people, as well as other animals. Where things mostly differ is in the portions of reality we individually perceive, and in the degree of knowledge with which we can articulate reality, which in turn influence our interpretations of reality henceforth.
Sure. These are rudiments of cognitive psychology. Instead I emphasize mainly the emotional and volitional aspect. Of every simple real object man, attributing to it an emotional value, either yearns for it or rejects it; he wants to incorporate it or get rid of it: he is unable to observe it purely for what it is. Because he is in the grip of his mind; while he thinks he commands it, he is its slave.
If you decide to take the easy way out, at least do it some interesting way, like 5 fishing magnets and ropes... Run out to the space x rocket as it's about to take off.... Ohhhh add some snow skiis and skii into to space!!!