Finals week is approaching soon, and with that comes a vast increase in stress for Syracuse University’s student body. Too much stress can affect students’ behavior, thoughts, feelings and body. If left unchecked, it could contribute to serious health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and depression.

A 2015 survey from the American College Health Association found that 30% of college students surveyed reported stress as a factor that affects their academic performance, the highest percentage of all factors listed, followed by anxiety and sleep difficulties. Fortunately, there are many ways to help manage stress while promoting healthy and successful academic performance.

Signs of stress include impatience, difficulty making small decisions, stomach problems and increased feelings of anxiety and panic. There are two main ways to deal with stress: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping.

Problem-focused coping are thoughts, actions or strategies that people can use to actively remove or diminish the stressor. Emotion-focused coping are actions, strategies or thoughts that people can use to manage or reduce stress-related emotions.

In the case of final exams, the easiest way to practice problem-focused coping mechanisms is to study and manage time to get everything done. But this may create more stress for people who get anxious and feel overwhelmed when too much stress piles up. Instead, here are some emotion-focused coping mechanisms that may help reduce anxiety and stress that prevents students from starting studying or finishing a paper.

“Sleep and exercise can promote more adaptive emotional and physiological responses to stress; making them a priority in busy times is a great idea when possible,” Jennifer Graham-Engeland, associate professor in the department of biobehavioral health at Penn State University, told the Daily Collegian.

Students who sleep less than six hours a night have been linked to lower GPAs than those who sleep nine hours or more a night. The quality and amount of sleep a person gets affects their mood, energy levels, concentration and overall functioning. Keeping a consistent sleep schedule and soothing music on when going to sleep may help reduce overall stress, thereby increasing the performance in an exam.

Physical activity can “pump up your feel-good endorphins and other neural chemicals that enhance your sense of well-being,” improving your mood and reducing irritability, according to Mayo Clinic. Exercise also increases blood flow to the brain, supplying more oxygen to the bloodstream and creating neurogenesis, or the production of neurons. This is connected to greater brain plasticity and better memory and learning capabilities.

Another way to deal with stress is limiting caffeine and sugar intake. Caffeine is known to alter the effects of several hormones like adenosine (which calms the body), adrenaline, cortisol (the stress hormone) and dopamine. The overall effect of caffeine with these drugs is that you get a sudden boost but, once your caffeine levels diminish, you get a low.

The effects of caffeine with the cortisol hormone is that the stress levels in the body increase and your adenosine levels decrease, limiting the ability to relax. Small to moderate amounts of caffeine may be good to the body and help you get that small boost needed to work, but too much will give you the opposite effect. Caffeine is best ingested before exercise as it enhances your performance while decreasing stress throughout the day.

Laughing more and dedicating some time to relax is also a way to deal with stress. Laughing relaxes your mental load and increases positive physical changes in the body. According to Mayo Clinic, it “fires up and then cools down your stress response,” thereby creating a relaxed feeling in the body. Laughter is linked to stimulating the organs and soothing tension in the body, as well as improvement in immune system, pain relief, increased personal satisfaction and mood improvement.

Another way to deal with stress is seeking counseling and tutoring opportunities. Fortunately, SU offers many different ways to deal with the stress such as counseling, mindfulness classes and tutoring opportunities. Tutoring may be done in groups or individually for a wide array of classes such as NSD 225, MAT 295, PHY 211 and more. Most of the tutoring services are free, but “individual tutors set their own rates as independent contractors.”

In order to set an appointment with the counseling office, call the Barnes Center at The Arch and schedule an appointment. Appointments are available the same day or with previous scheduling and can take place in person or virtually.

Finals week is a very stressful time, and students should know it’s fine to feel anxious and overwhelmed at this time. While studying, take into account your health. Professors should also take this into account when assigning their finals and papers and should help us through them by giving us more time to destress before finals week, as well as more time on exams per prompt and study guides to prepare for them. But, even if that is not the case, know that there are options and that the university provides other stress-relievers that may aid in this stressful time.

Daniela Dorado is a sophomore creative writing major. Her column appears bi-weekly, and she can be reached at ddorado@syr.edu.

Published on May 4, 2022 at 1:13 am