Please help...CAN ONLY OPEN OLD PROJECT

Greetings,
I’m new and I think I made a mistake.
A few hours into working on my project (it was still open). I UNNECESSARILY REOPENED the Project FROM DESKTOP (it was not showing the AUTO DATE SAVES)

WHEN I REOPENED PROJECT, IT SHOWS THE VERSION FROM 3 HOURS AGO (MY 3 hours of writing are NOWHERE).

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???

WHEN I OPEN MY PROJECT IT IS A 3 HOUR OLD VERSION. I CANNOT VIEW MY LAST THREE HOURS OF WORK.

I KNOW THERE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BACKUPS. HOWEVER, WHEN I OPEN BACKUP OR REGULAR COPY THEY BOTH SHOW 3 HOUR OLD PROJECT!

PLEASE HELP with 2 THINGS
1)WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? and how can I avoid.

  1. How can I access the 5 latest updates in case this happens again?

THANK YOU