Lucid dreaming is a great idea, but can take some practice. I have more trouble recovering from the flashback dreams that happen more than the flashbacks when I'm awake it seems. The dreams can leave me crying all day (not so much now that we've cranked up my meds), but now the flashbacks are happening while I'm awake (I've had two bad ones since the new year started). I keep waiting for the cops to show up to see who is being murdered and just finding my dumb ass.

It is common to have symptoms flare up as you delve into these things in therapy though, from what I've experienced and been told. For me it helps to have someone outside remind me to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, because I forget to breathe while freaking out. If that can break through, it calms me down so I can try the grounding exercises. I also have been told to take an extra dose of my benzos on top of my scheduled doses when I find myself getting that worked up (which for you I guess would be upon waking if your doc approves?) which is supposed to make the comedown quicker and easier.

Another thing that helped me is changing the channel to something comedic a while before bed, and shutting the tv off before bed. I like horror, sci fo, zombies, and true crime stuff but I implemented rule this a couple months ago and it made a huge difference. Now I put on a couple episodes of parks n rec, the office, friends, etc., before shutting off the tv. Shutting off the tv is important to. I hate sleeping without noise but a body scan or something is better to knock out to since you know where that is going and background noise from the tv will be erratic and seep into your dreams. If I'm reading I've got a couple things going and I'll switch to something funny like David Sedaris before sleep. I spent years calling bs on people telling me to do this, but it actually worked.