We investigate whether differential polynomials in real transcendental meromorphic functions have non-real zeros. For example, we show that if $g$ is a real transcendental meromorphic function, $c\in\mathbb{R}\setminus\{0\}$ and $n\geq3$ is an integer, then $g'g^n-c$ has infinitely many non-real zeros. If $g$ has only finitely many poles, then this holds for $n\geq2$. Related results for rational functions $g$ are also considered.