Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Worry and anxiety › Breaking the worry loop
A perfectionist will not cut their hours to be kinder to themselves, but they will cut them to get a better mark. So argue it on those terms. Stopping is not time lost from the work, it is part of the work, and sleep is where a fair amount of it happens. Put the finishing time in the plan the same way you put the starting time.
It is He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest (Quran 25:47). Rest is given as a provision, not as time taken from something more important.
الفرقان
وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيۡلَ لِبَاسࣰ ا وَٱلنَّوۡمَ سُبَاتࣰ ا وَجَعَلَ ٱلنَّهَارَ نُشُورࣰ ا
It is He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and made the day like a resurrection
Qur’an 25:47read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review and meta-analysis found that cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia reduced repetitive negative thinking and the worried beliefs people hold about their own sleep. Sleep and the circling mind feed each other, so protecting one helps the other. That evidence is about treating insomnia rather than about revision timetables, so the study advice here rests on the general link rather than on that review.
Ballesio A, Bacaro V, Vacca M, Chirico A, Lucidi F, Riemann D, Baglioni C, Lombardo C. (2021). Does cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia reduce repetitive negative thinking and sleep-related worry beliefs? A systematic review and meta-analysis.. Sleep medicine reviews doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Learning settles in the gaps, so the gaps are part of the studying rather than a break from it.
Sometimes there really is evidence for the fear. Say so. The balance comes from the other column being fuller, not from pretending the first column is empty.
Do not tell a child their thinking is wrong, and do not hand them the better thought. Ask the questions and let them arrive at it themselves.
Asking again and again whether it will be alright, and being told yes, buys a few seconds of calm and guarantees the next round of asking. The kindness in the answer is what keeps it going.