Sometimes, when we feel bad after a rough night, we make it even worse without realizing it.

One way to think about this is with the idea of clean pain and dirty pain.

• Clean pain is the normal, unavoidable pain when something tough happens. For example, feeling tired after a bad night’s sleep, feeling sad when something disappointing happens, or worrying about the future. This kind of pain is just part of life.

• Dirty pain, however, is the pain we add on top of clean pain by how we react to it. Dirty pain comes from how we respond to the initial pain. For example, if you’re tired, you might start thinking, “I’ll never sleep well again,” or feel frustrated and beat yourself up. These reactions can make you feel much worse.

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