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Sleep deprived
Every night I stay up till around 3 in the morning thinking about what I did wrong that day. How can I just let go and sleep?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Mental health?
People will tell you to not think of that then but it's not as simple as using your willpower to stop. It isn't hard to stop but the short retraining period you put your mind through will be very irritating. I have used this technique plenty of times.
The moment you catch yourself thinking about things you don't want to or not at that particular time, stop whatever else you may be doing and acknowledge that thought being there in your mind. Then tell yourself either out loud or internally, but you have to actually speak to yourself for your subconscious mind to get this. You will be telling your self, or your sub conscious mind that it needs to stop thinking about your day because it is time to go to sleep. A practice of keeping a written journal in which you write of your concerns is a good way to preserve them without focusing on them so late at night. If you unload your thoughts in a journal before you lay down then you can also remind your sub. mind that you have already written down your thoughts or concerns.
As far as being overly concerned about what you are doing wrong you need a tweaking of your point of view on that. It is through our mistakes that we learn if we are alert to the fact and paying attention. When some people make mistakes, they repeat the same mistakes over and over because they never gave it a thought like "What can I learn from this experience?" So as far as that goes, there are no long hours of mulling this over. There is nothing else you can do but recognize the same situation in the future and then change how you respond. In fact, if you begin to keep a journal, at the top of a page list what you feel was the error, mistake, or wrong choice and date it. leave the area below free to put in a paragraph of what you learned from it. It could be that your subconscious is afraid you are not going to remember the lessons you learned and do it right later even though your conscious mind knows better. So keeping a journal to remind yourself of how you learned to do better is a good thing. If you think you can, find a way to say, "I am glad for that mistake because I learned 'this and that' from it." Say it aloud to yourself when alone if you don't like to write and keep a journal. This is then going to be a must. Be specific of which mistake and also on what you learned from it. Until your subconscious and conscious minds are on the same page of not worrying and overthinking, it can still occur. But even that is not a mistake but a process of learning and the key word here is 'RETRAINING' your mind.
I have read plenty lists of what not to do before you intend to go to bed. No watching TV or computer screens as the light emitted messes with our bodies internal clock of when sleep should occur. No vigorous exercise. Some say it makes them tired but it revs me up and my heart rate is faster from whatever activity raised it. No coffee unless you're one of the few it puts to sleep. Don't take anything else with caffeine in it like pops, black teas, etc. No eating late. There are organs in your body that have a nightly cycle they go through usually at the hours you are asleep. They process based not on what you just ate but meals earlier in the day. If you just ate before bed, your body won't be able to rest because those organs will also have to process the recent late meal later and so you can end up still awake.You can also search for a list of 'things to do to help fall asleep or things to avoid doing so you can fall asleep'.
If you didn't have the problem of thoughts focused on what you did wrong as the reason you're up late, then it would only be insomnia and there are sleep aids for that, either Dr. prescribes, in pharmacies or there are natural ones too in vitamin supplement shops or health food stores. That is not what you said however. So if you didn't explain correctly and still need help, just try again and write what the actual problem is, what you have tried to cure it and any list of personal habits before bed. Good luck.
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Stop thinking about what you did wrong. What is done is done. Instead think about what you did right and what you can learn from what you did wrong.
Tossing and turning or sitting in front of the TV fretting over mistakes is not helping you. Sleep deprivation my even be the cause of why you are making mistakes. It is when we are tired is when we tend to make mistakes. If necessary, since you are now accustomed to not falling asleep until 3AM get an over the counter sleeping aid to help you fall asleep. Give yourself a minimum of 8 hours rest before waking for work.
I see from you past questions you are either in High School or College, probably High School. The purpose of an education is to learn. This is where you are allowed to make mistakes and where people, instructors, are there to help you learn from the mistakes you make.
You are being to hard on yourself. No one is perfect and getting a B or even a C is acceptable just as long as you gave your best effort and learned from what you did wrong on the assignments.
Sometimes we as parents put to much emphasis on grades. All a grade tells parents is how well our child is doing based on testing, for the larger part of the grade, and other assignments. IT does not truly tell us what you have learned or your ability to learn
Take the stress out of your life, get at least 8 hours sleep a night and you will make less mistakes.
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