The chorus features the line "dreaming of Zion awake", which refers to the last human city of planet Earth as depicted in the film.

The "Sleeping Awake" radio single, which began playing April 5,[1] and Marc Webb-directed music video garnered significant airplay upon release.

Vocalist Sonny Sandoval is shown demonstrating abilities often used in the film by individuals who are aware of the nature of the Matrix, particularly the character Neo (the ability to warp the reality of the Matrix) to move objects via computerized telekinesis, in this case alphabet nursery blocks and form the word "ONE" from the word "NEO."

The second room is a representation of the "real world" outside of The Matrix, and the band in this room are dressed in similar fashion to the Zionites in the Trilogy, garbed in old, and dirty clothes, although the level of degradation in the garments worn by the Zionites in the film is significantly more apparent than those worn by the band members in the music video.

The two realities are shown to be mirror-images of each other, positioned and moving in the same manner as each other - the band in the Matrix are playing their instruments left-handed to further touch on the theme.