Many college students face significant stress during finals week, but ASU experts say that eating right, avoiding caffeine and making time for enjoyable activities during finals are some ways students can alleviate stress.
In the ASU portion of the 2009 American College Health Association National College Health Assessment, 27.6 percent of students said stress had negatively affected their academic performance, according to Karen Moses, ASU’s director of Wellness and Health Promotion.
Moses said in an e-mail that some main causes of stress during finals are exams, projects, separation or reuniting with family and friends and worrying about finding a job.
“Students who struggle with anxiety may be prone to increased anxiety during this time,” Moses said.
Exercising, focusing on enjoyable activities, taking time to relax, talking about feelings with others, listening to music and sleeping well are all ways to reduce stress, she said.
“Those who know their stress triggers can choose to avoid particularly stressful situations,” Moses said.
Constant communication through texting, phone calls and the computer, can be an example of overwhelming stress when a student needs to study, Moses said.
“Set aside time to communicate with friends and family, allowing time to focus solely on your studies,” she said.
Moses said healthy living, including diet, exercise and sleep can make stress more manageable.
There are several stress-relief events held on ASU campuses throughout the semester, but one University-wide event is a late-night finals breakfast on May 5.
All four campuses are providing free breakfasts, and the Tempe, Polytechnic and Downtown campuses are planning to include free massages as well, Moses said.
Resources on campus for students dealing with stress include counseling services, health services, fitness and recreation centers, Wellness and Health Promotion, disability centers and Learning Support Services.
Larry Woodruff, a senior lecturer in the Exercise and Wellness department at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, teaches stress management classes and said stress affects the mind and body.
Stress is initiated by the brain based on the perception of what’s happening in the environment, he said. If something in the environment is threatening, there can be a stress response.
“If a student perceives finals as stressful, and I think 99.9 percent of them do, then they’re going to have a stress response,” Woodruff said.
Those with test anxiety have the worst stress response, and part of that response is a significant reduction in short-term memory.
“While they’re taking the exam, they’re going to forget a lot of this stuff that they studied that they should know, that they would otherwise know in more relaxed circumstances,” Woodruff said.
For some students, stress is a result of their thought process.
“Mostly, it’s peoples’ mental outlook and the way they think about things and the way they think about their own abilities to handle stressful situations,” Woodruff said.
Those who think they are less able to handle a stressful situation will have a greater stress response.
It depends on the individual, but Woodruff said regular meditation and breathing exercises can help decrease stress and improve concentration.
“Just taking a few deep breaths and focusing on trying to just narrow your mental focus to your breathing … at least it calms your brain down,” he said.
Some research suggests that by doing something enjoyable prior to a challenging task, it enables better performance on those tasks.
“The best fix is to prepare well so that it doesn’t stress you out so much,” Woodruff said.
Students should also consider how the exams will affect them in the future, he said.
“You have to adopt the attitude that ‘OK, I’ve done the best I can do, and I will do the best that I can do in the exam, but I’m not going to worry about it, because five years from now if my grade is a little lower than I thought it would be … it’s not going to make a difference,” Woodruff said.
Sometimes students really have to do well on certain exams and that will affect them in the future, he said. But doing poorly in one class generally won’t have that effect, and that’s when preparation comes in handy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing thoughts, is also proven effective for test anxiety and stress reduction.
Some foods and substances students should avoid are energy drinks, sugar and caffeine in general, he said, but they have to take withdrawal side effects into consideration.
“Any of these energy drinks are bad news,” Woodruff said, adding that caffeine is also bad. “Stay away from that stuff because that’ll just increase your sympathetic stimulation, which you already have going at a high level if you’re under stress in the first place.”
Nutrition can play an important role in brain function, so students should make sure their diets include protein, fat, vegetables and fruit for several days before and during the exams.
“You’ll get all the energy you need from fruits, and your blood sugar won’t spike,” Woodruff said.
Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu
