The day is gone and you cannot get it back, so stop trying. Eat something proper. Get outside for ten minutes in daylight. Hold your normal wake time tomorrow rather than sleeping in to catch up. Write down two facts about today. Then leave the big decisions until you have slept, because the version of you reading this is not the one to make them.
The next hour
In order, and none of it is difficult.
- **Eat.** You probably have not, or you have eaten badly at three in the morning. Nothing about the rest of this works on an empty tank.
- **Get outside.** Ten minutes, daylight if there is any left. It does more for the fog than another hour of lying down.
- **Wash and change.** Small, and it moves you out of the state the session left you in.
- **Message one person about anything at all.** Not a confession. A normal message about a normal thing. Nine hours alone in a room does something to your sense of proportion, and one ordinary exchange with a human puts it back.
- **Do one thing that was supposed to happen today.** One. The washing up, an email, a bill. Not the list. A single item, so tomorrow starts from something rather than from a full backlog.
That is the whole of today's plan. Anything more ambitious will not happen and you will add failing at it to the pile.
Tonight, and the temptation to over-correct
Two mistakes get made here, and they are opposites.
The first is going to bed at eight to make up for it. After a wrecked night, an early bedtime usually produces an hour of lying in the dark being annoyed. NHS advice for this is to "only go to bed when you're sleepy" and, more importantly, "do not sleep in after a bad night's sleep, stick to your regular sleeping hours instead". Your wake time is the anchor. Hold it and the rest realigns within a few days.
The second is staying up anyway, on the grounds that the day is already ruined so what does it matter. It matters tomorrow. Normal bedtime, whatever normal is for you, even if you are not tired.
If it has been weeks of this rather than one bad Saturday, the sleep problem has become its own thing and needs its own repair. [Getting your day back](/guides/gaming/sleep-work-and-getting-your-day-back) is slower and duller than it sounds, and it works.
Write two facts, not a verdict
Before you sleep, write down two things. This takes a minute and it is the only part of today with any leverage in it.
**What time it started.** Not when you meant to stop, when you sat down.
**What you were feeling in the twenty minutes before you sat down.** One word is enough. Bored. Dreading Monday. Flat. Angry after something. Wired from work. Nothing in particular, which is also an answer.
Do that after every long session and within a month you will have something no article can give you: your own list of the hours and moods that precede a lost day. Almost nobody does this, and it is the difference between "I keep doing this" and "I do this on Sunday afternoons when I have nothing on".
What you should not write is a verdict. Not "I have no self control", not "I clearly have an addiction", not "that's it, never again". None of those are facts, all of them feel true at eight in the evening after nine hours, and none of them are useful in the morning.
Do not make a new rule today
This is the most important paragraph here.
The rules people make in the hours after a lost day are always too big. Never again. A total ban. Uninstall everything and delete the account. They are made in shame, they are designed to punish, and they fail within the week, which then feels like more evidence that you cannot do this.
Make one small change tomorrow, when you are fed and slept, and make it the change that matches what actually happened. If the session started because you sat down with no stop point, [the fix is the last queue rather than the stop time](/guides/gaming/stopping-mid-session-when-you-cant). If it started because Saturday was empty, the fix is something in Saturday. If it started because you were avoiding something, the fix is the thing being avoided, and [what the game is actually giving you](/guides/gaming/what-the-game-is-actually-giving-you) is the piece for that.
One change. The one that fits today's two facts.
Is nine hours a sign of something?
On its own, no.
It is worth knowing what the recognised definition actually asks for, because at this hour people tend to hand themselves a diagnosis they have not earned. Gaming disorder requires impaired control, gaming taking priority over other interests and daily activities, and continuing despite negative consequences, and the pattern "would normally have been evident for at least 12 months". The World Health Organization also notes that it "affects only a small proportion of people who engage in digital- or video-gaming activities".
One nine hour Saturday during a bad week is not that. A pattern of them, over a year, with things falling over around it, might be, and if that is where you are then [the criteria are worth going through properly](/guides/gaming/is-my-gaming-a-problem) and there is [an NHS route in England](/guides/gaming/where-to-get-help-for-gaming-disorder) that takes self-referrals.
Either way, tonight is not the night to decide which one you are.
If today is darker than tired
Sometimes a lost day comes with a much heavier feeling than regret. If that is where you are, please do not sit with it alone.
Samaritans is **116 123**, free, any hour of the day or night. NHS urgent mental health support is **111**, option 2. Neither will lecture you about gaming.
Common questions
**I've lost the whole day to gaming. How do I stop feeling awful?** You mostly do not, today. What you can do is eat, get daylight, do one small thing that was supposed to happen, and protect tomorrow. The feeling drops sharply once one ordinary day has happened on top of it.
**Should I sleep in tomorrow to catch up?** No. NHS advice after a bad night is to stick to your regular sleeping hours rather than sleeping in. Holding your wake time is what pulls the pattern back, and it usually takes a few days rather than one heroic lie-in.
**Does one nine hour session mean I'm addicted?** No. The recognised criteria describe impaired control, gaming taking priority over daily life, and continuing despite harm, normally evident for at least twelve months. One lost day in a bad week is not a diagnosis.
**I promised myself I'd stop and I didn't. What now?** Treat it as information. Write down the time it started and what you felt beforehand, then change one thing that matches those two facts. Rules made tonight, in this mood, will be too big to keep.
Sources
- [NHS, Insomnia](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/insomnia/). The advice to only go to bed when sleepy and not to sleep in after a bad night, sticking to regular sleeping hours instead.
- [WHO, Gaming disorder frequently asked questions](https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/gaming-disorder). The criteria, the twelve month duration requirement, and that only a small proportion of people who play are affected.
- [CNWL, National Centre for Gaming Disorders](https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/national-centre-gaming-disorders). The NHS clinic for people in England aged 13 and over, which accepts self-referrals and does not offer crisis interventions.
