It’s almost the start of finals week, and it seems like everyone on campus is already stressed to the max. During this stressful time, it is important to stay focused, keep track of time management and avoid literally going crazy. We all want summer to start already, so we need to stay calm and study our hardest and really just get it over with. To keep yourself from having a mental breakdown, here are a couple stress relievers to help you get through this dreaded week and on to an awesome fun summer.
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Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is such a hard thing to come by, especially during finals week. Researchers say that everyone should get at least 8 hours of sleep at night, but with campus events, parties and exams going on, getting that amount each night is nearly impossible for college students. During finals week, getting enough sleep is even harder. We find ourselves pulling “all nighters” and consuming large amounts of coffee and energy drinks. What we don’t realize is with these things and not getting enough sleep, it really affects our health and causes us to become stressed out even more.
A healthy solution to this would be simply going to sleep earlier and waking up earlier to study. By doing this, we wake up the next day feeling refreshed and determined to succeed with everything we do that day.
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Take A Break
If you’ve been stuck studying in class or the library all day, stop right now! Go outside, take a walk and stretch your legs. Change your scenery and your perspective. By doing this, not only will you push those stressful thoughts out of your mind for a bit, but you will feel better getting back to your work later.
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Get Some Exercise
Before you tell yourself that you don’t have time to fit exercise into your busy schedule all you need is 30 minutes to relieve that stress that you’ve built up and it’s incredibly easy! Taking a simple walk for 30 short minutes while listening to music does such great things for your stress and for your health. Exercise releases endorphins, a “feel good” brain chemical, which relaxes your muscles and helps you sleep better. If walking doesn’t suffice, turning on some music and dancing can also do you good and puts you in an awesome mood.
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Eat Healthy
I don’t know about you, but my eating habits as a college student are absolutely terrible. Eating at odd hours at night and eating greasy and cheap foods is common, but eating healthy and having usual eating habits keeps your stress level down and yourself happy.
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Sweet Snack
Although you should maintain healthy eating habits during finals week, it’s not bad to have a sweet snack, like dark chocolate to really put you in good spirits. Dark Chocolate is high in antioxidants and releases endorphins to help your brain and yourself focus. If you don’t like dark chocolate, you could always try apple slices and some peanut butter, which always tastes amazing.
And if all else fails, you know that Ryan Gosling can help you with that stress of finals week.
As Finals Week begins, USFSP HerCampus wishes you the best of luck on all your exams, as well as an amazing summer!