Final Exams and Stress Are [Annoying] Besties

It’s the end of the semes­ter. A nice long break is with­in arm’s reach. There’s just one thing stand­ing between you and your vaca­tion. Finals.

Whether you’re prepar­ing for finals with a care­ful­ly craft­ed study sched­ule or with a last-minute cram ses­sion, stress dur­ing finals week may as well be a rite of passage. 

It’s not all bad news. A lit­tle bit of stress dur­ing finals can actu­al­ly be beneficial.

How­ev­er, finals week stress can take a toll on both your well-being and how you per­form on your tests. Here’s what you need to know about final exams and stress as you hit the books.

Finals Week Stress Is Acute Stress – Not Chronic

Acute stress is short-term stress that occurs because of a spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion, like being in the throes of finals week. It typ­i­cal­ly doesn’t have a long-term impact on your health. 
Chron­ic stress, on the oth­er hand, lasts for a few weeks or more. Unlike acute stress, it can increase your risk for health issues if left untreat­ed, such as:

• Anx­i­ety or depression
• Trou­ble falling or stay­ing asleep
• Exhaus­tion
• Stom­ach or diges­tive problems
• Dia­betes
• Heart dis­ease
• High blood pressure
• Obe­si­ty
• Skin prob­lems, like eczema or acne
• Weak­ened immune system

Also read: Chron­ic Stress Is Mak­ing You Sick

It’s Impor­tant to Take Finals Week Stress Seriously

Since acute stress doesn’t usu­al­ly affect your health, you may be won­der­ing about the point of man­ag­ing it.

It’s very easy to slide from ​“just a bit stressed” to feel­ing com­plete­ly over­whelmed. If you keep hav­ing repeat­ed bouts of acute stress, you might get inflam­ma­tion in your cir­cu­la­to­ry sys­tem (which can increase your risk for heart dis­ease). And if stress builds up and lingers, it could even­tu­al­ly become chron­ic stress. While pre­vent­ing chron­ic stress isn’t always pos­si­ble, nip­ping acute stress in the bud could decrease your like­li­hood of becom­ing chron­i­cal­ly stressed.

Also, there are some sit­u­a­tions, like if you already have cer­tain med­ical con­di­tions, where acute stress can affect your health. For exam­ple, acute stress can trig­ger an asth­ma attack. Acute stress may also cause rapid breath­ing, which can lead to pan­ic attacks in peo­ple who are prone to them.

If you need help man­ag­ing stress, sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care behav­ioral health provider or your pri­ma­ry care provider.

Man­ag­ing Stress Can Mean Bet­ter Grades

Man­ag­ing stress doesn’t sim­ply make you feel bet­ter or boost your mood. Focus­ing on stress man­age­ment while you’re study­ing for finals could actu­al­ly help you improve your scores. There are sev­er­al rea­sons why this may happen.

• Even acute stress can cause insom­nia. Insom­nia can cause dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing or remem­ber­ing facts, which are crit­i­cal dur­ing exams. Some stud­ies have even found a cor­re­la­tion between get­ting a full night’s sleep before tak­ing a test and bet­ter grades. 
• Acute stress might not have last­ing health effects, but it can cause tem­po­rary prob­lems like stom­achaches and headaches. It’s dif­fi­cult to con­cen­trate when you’re feel­ing less than your best. 
• Stress man­age­ment is an invalu­able life skill. Learn­ing how to han­dle stress dur­ing finals can help you man­age it in sim­i­lar stress­ful sit­u­a­tions lat­er, whether it’s your next round of finals or a major pre­sen­ta­tion at work.

Also read: How Does Stress Affect The Body? Take This Quiz to Find Out!

There Are Many Ways to De-stress

Meth­ods of stress man­age­ment vary from per­son to per­son, so the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less. You may have to try a few dif­fer­ent tech­niques to find the ones that work best for you.

Some ways to man­age finals week stress include:

• Take brain breaks. Putting your books away and clos­ing your eyes for a few min­utes or sim­ply going out­side to change your scenery can help you reduce stress and refocus. 
• Get mov­ing. You may not have time for a full work­out, but you can do ​“mini” exer­cise breaks. Do jump­ing jacks, go up and down the stairs a few times, or put on your favorite song and dance it out. 
• Try mind­ful breath­ing or a short yoga or med­i­ta­tion session.
• Lim­it social media use to less than 1 hour per day.
• Avoid stress eat­ing. It can be tempt­ing to chow down on can­dy and chips while study­ing, but they can cause blood sug­ar spikes and crash­es. Plus, get­ting into the habit of stress eat­ing can lead to weight gain down the road. 
• Eat foods that are known to help reduce stress, such as salmon, eggs, and foods high in dietary fiber (like fruits and veg­gies, beans, nuts, and seeds). Stay away from alco­hol, caf­feine, and foods high in sug­ar or trans fats.

Also read: 6 Ways to Reduce Stress for a Health­i­er Heart

Know When to Get Help

Feel­ing stressed dur­ing finals week doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly require treat­ment. As long as you know how to man­age stress and it doesn’t last long, you prob­a­bly are fine han­dling it on your own.

But if you con­tin­ue to feel stressed and it starts to inch toward chron­ic, it may be time to get pro­fes­sion­al help. Hav­ing sev­er­al of these symp­toms for more than a few weeks could indi­cate that your stress has become chronic:

• Irri­tabil­i­ty
• Pan­ic attacks
• Aches and pains (e.g. Body, bel­ly etc.)
• Appetite changes
• Low ener­gy
• Avoid­ing social situations
• Changes in how you respond emo­tion­al­ly to others
• Fre­quent sad­ness or anxiety
• Increased drug or alco­hol use

There are also some sit­u­a­tions where acute stress is so severe that it does require imme­di­ate treat­ment. If your stress has reached the point where you are hav­ing thoughts of sui­cide or self-harm, get care right away.

Be Kind to Yourself

It’s easy to get down on your­self dur­ing finals week if you’re strug­gling to under­stand or remem­ber things, or if the score on your final will deter­mine your grade for the class. It’s impor­tant to not give up – but in the midst of your study­ing, remem­ber to give your­self some grace.