You have the wrong attitude asking if its real or not, even thinking if it is or not can set you back on your journey. It has been proven and its quite easy to understand. Your brain has a logic center, to identify what is real and what is not. If you can turn this back on aka Lucid Dreaming you will be aware of your dreams. Dreaming to a non-lucid form, is like seeing your parents everyday and going to work, its all normal to you. But when you practice Lucid Dreaming, you get aware of your dreams and turn the Normal to "Omg, Im dreaming?" So its pretty simple to understand. Logic = Off when you are not lucid, Then if you make a habit of knowing you can breath in a dream with your nose pinched or see that your hands are messed up, you will take that into the dream world as a habit and be aware. Think of it as in a regular non lucid dream your body is in autopilot, then suddenly the plane is going down and it needs the pilot to steer it, thats when you become "aware" and know that you are dreaming.