With finals week coming up on Dec.17, students tend to accelerate their studying habits and ultimately find themselves stressing even more. With such a small amount of time, they begin to feel swamped in papers and books. Students often get overwhelmed by the amount of work left, so here are five ways you can destress before finals week.

1. Sleep

Get plenty of sleep. Getting an average of seven to eight hours of sleep can improve your productivity and help you stay focused. Students tend to pull an “all-nighter,” where they attempt to cram all the information they have learned throughout the year on the day before the test. This is a horrible technique because students tend to show up to the exam tired and can’t remember the information from the night before. By spreading the workout and sleeping, you can regurgitate the information much better.

2. Exercise

Along with sleep, exercise is important to help destress during finals week. Exercise helps increase your energy and drive. However, over-exercising can strain muscles and lead to increased drowsiness. If you keep a controlled amount of exercise and a moderate amount of studying you can enhance the amount of learning and lower your stress levels.

3. Music

Everyone has that one playlist that manipulates their mood. Pick the playlist that keeps you upbeat and raises you to a happier place. Usually, songs with minimal lyrics are the best to help you study. Instead of thinking of each individual word, you can continue thinking of your study material. Similar exercising, you want to keep your music as background noise. Never have the music too loud so you don’t become distracted.

4. Meditation

According to the Mayo Clinic, meditation is “A simple fast way to reduce stress.” Many professionals have recommended meditation as a way to manipulate stress levels. Step aside from all of your work and take a journey through your thoughts. There are a lot of different apps you can download such as “Calm” or “Headspace” that deal with lowering stress levels in just a few minutes.

5. Perspective 

The most important way to de-stress is to understand is that final exams are just another test. There are tons of other tests you will take in the future. Your life doesn’t depend on whether or not you pass your finals. Students all over the world overthink finals because they tend to believe that they are the deciding factor in their future. It is still important to take them seriously but don’t overthink them.