I'm fairly convinced this isn't true. Very different areas of the brain are involved real life versus dreams, even if the sensations in a dream mimic the sensations in real life does NOT mean they are created by the same areas of the brain.
I was simply quoting Stephen laberge, and from what I've read on different sites there seems to be a strong connection between visual and mental imagery and how they're processed..

http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology.../section1.html

In addition to evidence from interference, evidence from brain imaging studies (see the Neuropsychology section on methodology for more information on brain imaging techniques) shows that many of the areas of the brain used for vision are activated when people perform a task requiring mental imagery. Final evidence for overlapping systems comes from people who have suffered brain damage. People who lose some visual ability as a result of brain damage also lose the corresponding ability in mental imagery; for example, people who lose the ability to see color also lose the ability to imagine scenes in color. Thus, it seems that people use the same physical areas of the brain for mental imagery and visual perception.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neur...3/Mintzer.html

Studies using this technology soon confirmed that areas of the visual cortex are active during mental imagery, suggesting that indeed visual imagery and visual perception may share a common neural basis.