If I am dreaming now, then it is a much more coherent and stable dream than what I normally call a dream. When I wake up and think about the dream, I realize that locations, people, and circumstances in the dream were constantly shifting, and there it is impossible to put together a rational story. Sometimes I even notice these qualities while I'm dreaming, and I figure out that I'm in a dream. However, what I think of as waking life does not have those qualities. I can think back across the span of my life to my earliest memories and put together a narrative where one event leads to another, places are stable, and people move in and out of the story in an orderly fashion. Also, in my interactions with people, they appear to have experiences of the same kind as my own, both in dreaming and in waking life.

Therefore, if this life "is not real," I would think it has to be an extremely well done and elaborate simulation, on the order of The Matrix, rather than something like the dreams I experience.

If I am dreaming now, then it is a much more coherent and stable dream than what I normally call a dream. 

When I wake up and think about the dream, I realize that locations, people, and circumstances in the dream were constantly shifting, and that it is impossible to put them together into a rational story. 

Sometimes I even notice these qualities while I'm dreaming, and I figure out that I'm in a dream. 

However, what I think of as waking life does not have those qualities. I can think back across the span of my life to my earliest memories, and put together a narrative where one event leads to another; places are stable; and people move in and out of the story in an orderly fashion. 

Also, I know from my interactions with people that they have experiences of the same kind as my own, both in dreaming and in waking life, which confirms my belief that dream consciousness is different from waking consciousness.

If this life is not real," it would have to be an extremely well-done and elaborate simulation, on the order of The Matrix, rather than merely a normal dream.