It’s midnight during midterm week and you’re slumped over your desk trying to study.

You are thinking more about finally getting sleep, and less about what you need to know for your calculus exam. The more you sit trying to remember everything you learned during the last two months, the more your brain becomes overwhelmed.

Midterm week is the ultimate stress overload. Not only are students worrying about upcoming tests, but they are also bogged down with other tasks and responsibilities.

‘Multitasking, anticipation and extreme amounts of reading are all things that make students stressed,’ said Ann Bair, a social worker and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. ‘The brain becomes overloaded, especially in addition to social activities that students want to get involved with.’

According to www.stress.org, the No. 1 health problem in the United States is: stress. It manifests itself in a person’s emotions, mood and behavior. If you find your friends snapping at you this week, realize it’s probably because they’re stressed out.

Effects of stress include insomnia, difficulty learning new information, overreaction to annoyances, obsessive behavior, biting nails, headaches and more.

There are things you can do to manage your stress and avoid freaking out throughout midterm week. One of the best things to do when you get an assignment, or as soon as you know you are going to have a test, is put it on a calendar. Plan out days that you have time to study or work on that assignment in advance. Since you will then know the workload you have to look forward to, you may be less stressed since it will not come as a surprise.

‘You have to make sure to follow your plan, though,’ Bair said. ‘If another opportunity comes along, you have to weigh your options and balance the things you want to and have to do.’

Also, when you have a calendar in front of you it will be clear which days you have free to spend more time to study and which days you will be cramming until dawn. When you find you have free time, you can reorganize your workload. Study earlier for tests and spread out the work when you are going to be having rough nights. That way you won’t be staying up till 3 a.m., four nights in a row.

Spending the entire night studying, even if you need all the time in the world to study for a test, is often counterproductive. Take breaks, think about other things and relax. Take time – even when you don’t think you have the time – for a food break, a music break or even time to talk with friends. Giving your brain a rest will benefit in the long run.

‘You have to work out an organized way of how to do things,’ Bair said. ‘Your emotional mind tries to hijack your reasonable mind and, ideally, you want to get to a wise mind, a combination of the two. Your wise mind is saying this is what I have to do and I cannot allow myself to lose focus. Losing focus will cause you to be stressed.’

Bair recommends a four-step process to eliminate stress from everyday life: ‘Stop, breathe, reflect and choose,’ she said. ‘The first thing you have to do is stop and bring your awareness to the negative emotion and remind yourself to pay attention to what you are doing.’

The second step is to breathe. Become sensitive to your breath and relax, allowing negative emotions to soften.

Then reflect and appraise the situation. See if you can change the way you are thinking about what you have to do.

Next, you will choose.

‘Having become more aware of your reaction, tap into your insight of what is possible and effective,’ Bair said. ‘Make a creative choice and see what your best choice is under the circumstances.’

Most students get stressed out during midterm and final exams, but there are plenty of ways to avoid becoming too overwhelmed. There is also professional help available at the counseling center if you need it.

Rebecca Toback is a sophomore magazine journalism major and the health columnist. Her columns appear every Thursday. She can be reached at rltoback@syr.edu.

Published on October 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm