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Manage your stress naturally for exams

Anxiety, stress, fatigue:exams put your nerves to the test. From long hours of revisions to final exams, stress management goes through a healthy lifestyle and adequate nutrition. Some natural remedies are effective against stress. Homeopathy, aromatherapy and herbal medicine can help you.

Changing your habits to manage exam stress

Exams remain a trying time, both physically and psychologically. Stress management begins with appropriate nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.

A period of stress and anxiety

Confinement, isolation, cramming and intensive work are the harsh conditions that revisions and exams inflict on you. The neural circuits responsible for memory and thinking are particularly stressed. In addition, concentration is increased during long hours, and fatigue accumulates. Challenges and doubts often end up winning over students.

Some characteristic symptoms of exam periods can quickly make themselves felt:

  • Anxiety, stress, even anxieties and sleep disorders (problems falling asleep, nocturnal awakenings);
  • Fatigue, nervousness, hypersensitivity;
  • Loss of memory and impaired alertness and concentration;
  • Sometimes even a state of panic, or even burnout.

Translation of this malaise, some people embrace dangerous behaviors of school doping. INPES has also issued recommendations on doping during exams in order to warn of the risks involved. According to an OFDT study among 18-year-olds, 38.3% of girls and 22.3% of boys have already consumed products to increase their intellectual performance. These results take into account the use of vitamins and trace elements, caffeine, but also anabolic or exciting drugs.

Improve your lifestyle

Stress management during exam periods means improving your lifestyle in the first place. There is no question of working sleepless nights in order to swallow as much data as possible! Real cement of memory, sleep must be sufficiently recuperative. It allows the consolidation of the learning achieved during the day, physical and neuronal recovery. Lack of sleep leads to a decrease:

  • the ability to memorize and sort important information from irrelevant ones;
  • concentration during the day and working skills.

Stress and sleep are also intimately linked:the stress generated by exams can disturb your nights, and lack of sleep can accentuate stress. It's a vicious circle that needs to be broken (see our natural solutions below).

During revision days, a regular break time must be respected. Have you ever had the impression of reading the same sentence several times without really understanding it? It is a sign of saturation. Working more becomes counterproductive, you need a break! Sports activity, practiced at least 30 minutes a day, is an excellent option. It promotes the integration of data, reduces stress, stimulates awakening, and in the evening, promotes falling asleep. Do not hesitate to consult the advice of mangerbouger.fr to practice a sport.

Optimize your nutrition

Eating well during exams optimizes learning and combats stress. No meal should be skipped, especially not breakfast. To keep your nutritional intake balanced, you can read the WHO advice for healthy nutrition.

The brain is a big consumer of sugar (glucose), however calorie bombs such as sodas, candies, cakes, and candy bars are false friends. They don't make it possible to hold up over time. This is also the case for energy drinks based on guarana, taurine, or high-dose caffeine. In the moment, they seem to give a boost, but the backlash that quickly follows tires you more. These drinks also promote excitement.

Alcohol should be banned:short-term stimulant, it quickly slows down learning abilities and can cause daytime sleepiness. Tobacco also participates in a pernicious circle of consumption and must be avoided. It's tempting to smoke when you're stressed, while tobacco promotes arousal and stress symptoms.

It is interesting to eat certain foods during exams:

  • Water is preferred for your hydration, which must be sufficient (1.5L/d). This element is essential for concentration.
  • Foods containing magnesium help reduce stress. This trace element is a nervous regulator. Dried fruits and oilseeds, bananas, dark chocolate in small doses contain it.
  • If they do not fight directly against stress, slow sugars are essential (pasta, rice, cereals, bread, potatoes…):rich in calories, they are anti-fatigue, and allow you to hold all your daytime. In addition, they provide the glucose the brain needs gradually.
  • Other foods improve memory and make you feel more serene.
    • Those that contain Omega 3 fatty acids. This is the case with fatty fish (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, etc.), flaxseed, camelina and rapeseed oils, as well as nuts, for example. Omega 3s are essential constituents of neurons:they stabilize their membranes and their receptors, thus contributing to cerebral communication.
    • Foods containing B vitamins such as legumes, peas, spinach, pork, poultry and fish, eggs, and dairy products. Vitamins B1, B6, B9 and B12 in particular play a major role in memorization.

    • Foods containing iron. This element is responsible for cerebral oxygenation, but it also facilitates the production of neuroregulators such as serotonin or dopamine. Mood, sleep and learning are therefore indirectly linked to its consumption. Red meats, green vegetables, legumes and whole grains contain it.

Natural remedies for exam stress

Hygieno-dietary measures are not always enough to manage anxiety and sleep disorders generated by revisions and exams. On the advice of your pharmacist or doctor, natural remedies can be an interesting and effective anti-stress solution.

Phytotherapy:plants to manage stress

To manage resistance to stress over time and fight against exhaustion, you can lean towards so-called adaptogenic plants. They are traditionally used to increase concentration and performance in times of overwork, while decreasing stress. The EMA, European Medicines Agency, lists the monographs of all these plants. We find for example:

  • Ginseng (Panax ginseng):tonic, it is mainly used against fatigue.
  • Rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea):used to facilitate relaxation and reduce fatigue, it is the anti-stress adaptogen plant for exams par excellence.
  • Eleutherococcus (Eleutherococcus senticosus):it is frequently used to boost intellectual and physical performance during exams.

Other plants are traditionally used for their relaxing and sedative properties. Devoid of tonic properties, they target anxieties and sleep disorders. We find in particular:

  • Valerian (Valeriana officinalis);
  • Eschscholtzia or California poppy (Eschscholzia californica);
  • Passiflora (Passiflora incarnata);
  • Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha), used to combat palpitations.

Aromatherapy:anti-stress essential oils

Derived from plants and very concentrated, essential oils can also help you to fight against the stress of exams. Some of them are traditionally used for their relaxing properties and improving the quality of sleep. This is the case of:

  • officinal lavender (Lavandula officinalis);
  • Roman chamomile (Chamaemalum nobilis).

Citrus essential oils are traditionally recommended to promote relaxation:

  • petit grain bitter orange from bitter orange (Citrus aurantium);
  • sweet orange (Citrus sinensis)
  • tangerine (Citrus reticulata).

You can find monographs for each of these oils on the EMA website. By diffusion, massage or oral intake, your pharmacist will be able to advise you. Some complexes, available in pharmacies, combine different oils in synergy.

Homeopathy:strains for stress management

The small homeopathic granules are also appreciated to regulate stress during exams. Strains that target stage fright and stress more like Gelsemium sempervirens, Ignatia amara, Kalium phosphoricum, or Argentum nitricum.

Associations of three strains in low homeopathic dilution also exist to fight against sleep disorders, allowing an easy and practical intake.