At this point in my Miami University career, I have developed quite the routine for finals week.
Step One: get sick. This has ranged from bronchitis to simple colds to a rare and highly improbable second case of mono (that's right kids, you can get it twice).
Step Two: plan ahead. This involves writing all needed study guides and a schedule for said studying.
Step Three: ignore step two. Invariably this rubric gets compressed from its original 10-day calendar to a four-to-five day cram fest.
Step Four: get invariably sicker. This is especially true for first semester finals when Ohio remembers it is Ohio and starts kicking up wind/rain/snow/sleet/death storms. As much as I like to think I'm an original person, the cacophony of sniffles, sneezes and hacking coughs echoing through King Library this late on a night before finals week tells me I'm hardly alone in this routine.
We are college students. By the very definition of this status, we do not take care of our bodies. Earlier in the semester another opinion writer, Samantha Friedman, addressed the issue of weight gain in college up through senior year. While those figures were as frightening as mine is right now, they are not what is most concerning at a time like finals week. Obviously good nutrition is absolutely important, but the entire spectrum of health habits takes a beating in the days leading up to finals and during the horrific week itself.
The first victim is sleep. A person our age needs eight and a half to nine hours of sleep per night. The average college student gets somewhere closer to six hours of sleep per night.
The days we should reserve for catching up on sleep are weekends. However, alcohol-induced or addled sleep is far less restful than normal sleep because the alcohol prevents your body from entering REM sleep.
Between staying up late on weeknights and not getting the proper sleep on weekends (Not to generalize, but seriously, how many college students have weekends completely free of alcohol consumption?) we're looking at racking up a major deficit in the sleep department.
The next victim is nutrition. I won't elaborate further than Friedman did, but needless to say, we eat terribly. Coffee, energy drinks, beer, fast food, foods made entirely out of preservatives … the list goes on. Without proper nutrition, our bodies are not able to keep up with the demands we make of them.
Going hand in hand with nutrition, the third victim is exercise. When finals week rolls around, I barely have time for sleep. What are the odds I'll make it to the gym?
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The fourth victim to finals week is general emotional health. The stress that finals and all that work brings is unparalleled at first. As the years go on, you learn to adapt, but that doesn't mean you aren't feeling stretched to the limit. You become snappier with your friends and family. You have no patience for others. You are 30 times more likely to walk up to a first-year student in the library and choke him with his own tongue for talking on his phone in a quiet study area.
I know it's nearly impossible to curb these self-abusive tendencies during the worst week and a half of the semester, but do yourself a favor and at least think about some of the choices you make during finals.
Grab a bowl of fruit and a power nap. Walk to the library for some exercise and fresh air. Don't kill that group of seniors who have no work to do so they're hammered at 5 p.m. Monday night.
Your rate of success during exam week is sure to improve if you take a little bit of time and effort and think of your health because no one does good on exams when they're caffeinated and crazed and haven't slept in days.
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