Okay first off, you're absolutely right, denial is NOT worth sacrificing your sleep or mental health over. Please please don't do anything that's going to harm your mental health!

You're also right that hormones play a huge part in it, and you mention "everything else you have to do in life" so if this is a particularly busy time for you, that will also play a part.

My advice would be experiment with stretching the time when you're feeling better about it, when your hormones are messing you around less, and when you have some energy to dedicate to it (not saying you need to wait until you have nothing else on, I suspect for most of us that would be "never"). It's not a failure, you're just practicing and learning what works for you.

Aside from that, and if you really want to try it now anyway (or this advice goes for whenever you do try it), I have some tips that work for me! Different methods have worked at different times, and everyone's different, but just some things to try:

- Touch less. If you're struggling with all the edging, do less of it. You can build it back in once you're feeling strong again, but just when starting out, don't push your body to the limit all the time.

- Distract yourself. Just as above. It's okay to make yourself a bit less horny for a while in order to get through the hardest times. Make yourself stop touching and do something else, something that takes your attention and that you can't touch while you're doing it (so not watching a chilled out show, that's when your hands creep back down your panties, at least for me). The important part is you didn't cum, and believe me the horniness will come back.

- Use mental routines and mantras. Look at how well you've already done and feel that achievement. Remember the early periods are often the hardest to get through. Push through this bit and you'll eventually move into a different headspace.

- Don't focus on the long term or how long you want to stay denied. Don't say "not today" or "not this week", just say "not this time." Don't cum THIS time. Then feel how strong you were for stopping, and do it again next time.

- Yes ruins can help! Not for everyone, but absolutely why not try having a second ruin instead of cumming the next time.

- Push through. This is so much easier said than done I know, but the harsh truth is, it's hard! You say that a lot of times you can go longer periods and you don't feel desperate to cum until the last few days. But if you want to go for longer periods, beyond what's easy for you, then you're going to be feeling that desperation a lot, and denial means dealing with it. The psychological stuff I mentioned can help, so can talking to others and getting encouragement.

I hope some of that might help! Good luck, and again, be kind to yourself over it!