I think this happens to most people at one point or another - if you do keep practicing and dreaming, it's a problem that you should eventually overcome just by getting a better sense of how it is to be lucid, thus being able to maintain it better. Practicing awareness in general should definitely help. Maintaining a lucid dream takes more active focus than doing things automatically as we often do in waking life. In real life we could, as you did in your dream, smoke a cigar automatically without really thinking about it while our minds were actually focused on something else entirely - as another example, planning or reading or remembering something. We can safely travel into our thoughts or imagination without fear of the cigar vanishing, or becoming less substantial, or of our focus becoming so swallowed up by these other things that we'd never be able to direct it back to what we'd been doing. But in a lucid dream, all these things can easily happen.
You need to try and focus all your attention on the dream and what is around you, to pay attention to and become as aware of it as possible. If you start thinking about how none of the dream is real, you might start thinking about what is "real" - about your body and waking life, which can easily cause you to wake up, or have a false awakening, or just lose lucidity. In this moment, you're present in the dream, and the dream is all that matters. Try to let go of everything else and relax. Just take a moment to pause and look at everything that is already there. Perhaps try imagining that the dream is like a page of text and you're looking at it with your eyes unfocused: focus them, and really look closely. It can be hard to get the right sort of focus and the right balance between relaxation/alertness, but you'll get there.
I think one of the reasons many stabilization techniques seem to work is because they bring you into the moment and make you focus on one or few things at a time. If you don't have time to rub your hands, or spin around, or say mantras, just try looking at what is there right then and holding it in your mind, just perceiving it and knowing that you're dreaming, you're seeing it, it's there in the dream. If you're smoking a cigar, think about the feeling of holding it, of drawing from it - the taste of it, the texture, the exact shade and shape. Similarly, perhaps the reason that the monsters in the dream kept you awake was because they induced a strong sense of fear, which forced you to really focus on them (in the same way that if something were attacking you in real life you'd devote your whole attention to it rather than starting to think of something else, or simply letting yourself zone out or fall asleep) so, while the monsters might work, other things should, too Instead of thinking about how unreal things are, perhaps try focusing on how real and intense they can seem. Just not getting stressed and keeping your mind interested, focused and engaged with the dream (starting with what's already there before moving onto trying anything else) should help.
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