I too think lucid dreaming is the way to go. Maybe there are even some smart watches that can detect the increased heartrate and wake you. I know the Garmin Watches scream loudly af if they detect an irregular heartbeat.

One more thing on Lucid dreaming tho. Go slow and either take full control immediately to wake up or try to do only the smallest corrections if you want to stay in your dream At least for me it feels terrible when your consciousness takes over from your subconscious. It feels like I’m tearing my mind apart, and if I’d had to guess it’s the closest that I will ever feel to going insane.

If push comes to shove you can still try to run it using virtualization