By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

The dreaded week is almost upon us.: finals week. One of the most stressful times for college students everywhere. By the end of the week, students look more like ghosts than people and your bed is the light at the end of a dark, dark tunnel.

For some, finals week is an old battle ground they keep tirelessly returning to, for others, it is only the beginning. Whether you’re a first year, or an eighth year senior, finals week is never easy.

The amount of stress that college students go through during the school year, and especially during finals, can seem endless. Massive amounts of stress aren’t only bad for how well you perform in school and day to day activities, but can take a physical toll as well.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, everyone’s body deals with stress differently: “ … Some people experience mainly digestive symptoms, while others may have headaches, sleeplessness, depressed mood, anger and irritability. People under chronic stress are prone to more frequent and severe viral infections, such as the flu or common cold, and vaccines, such as the flu shot, are less effective for them.”

Below are some tips for finals week, so you can keep your stress levels down, and your studying techniques at top notch.

1) Know when to take a break
According to the American Psychological Association, “… time off boosts energy reserves so that you need to exert less effort to get work done when you return.” Taking a break when you have a lot of studying to do can be beneficial to the quality of your work in the long run. So make sure you put the books down for a day or two and go out to eat, watch a movie or chill out.

2)The less caffeine, the better
Energy levels can begin to drop when you’re stuck in one place for too long. Many students rely on coffee or caffeine filled drinks to keep themselves going. Make sure you don’t over do it. Once finals week rolls around, coffee drinkers tend to go from two cups a day to four or five, just to keep up. For your own health, don’t do this. As stated by Mayo Clinic, drinking four or more cups of coffee a day may cause side effects such as: insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritability, upset stomach, fast heartbeat, and muscle tremors.

3)Eat nutritiously
There are other ways to get energy than drinking your weight in coffee. Eating right to keep your blood sugar levels normal is just as effective at boosting up your energy. According to WebMD, “Portable combinations of complex carbs and lean protein, like low-fat cheese and whole-grain crackers, whole fruit and a handful of nuts, or a low-fat granola bar, are great munchies for energy.”

4)Make an outline for those essays
Procrastination is a college student’s best frenemy. Especially when you have an eight to 12 page paper due in two days. Being one of the biggest procrastinators on Earth, I can tell you that writing a brief outline of what’s going to be in your essay is extremely helpful. It allows you to organize your thoughts, so you know what direction your essay is heading. Don’t worry, you can still pull most of it out of thin air, but it’ll be just a little easier to assemble.

5)SLEEP
Sleep is a student’s best buddy. As stated by the American Psychological Association, sleep improves your ability to comprehend information. “… Research suggests that sleep improves the brain’s ability to remember information. In a 2006 study in Current Biology, Harvard Medical School sleep researchers found that memories of recently learned word pairs improved when participants slept between learning and testing.” The longer you force yourself to stay awake to continue studying, the less information you keep.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu