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Save Your Skin During Finals Week

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Ethnic college student studying

As if the stress of school didn’t already wreak havoc on your skin, finals seem to amplify that. My senior year at college I had some of the worst finals assignments I’ve ever had, and it definitely showed in my skin.

Let me be a cautionary tale in saying that eating and drinking a ton of sugar — sour Skittles and Mountain Dew Throwback were my jam during that week — and not sleeping are a mix that will absolutely lead to you looking and feeling awful. By the end of the week I had sallow skin and the wild-eyed look of someone with too little sleep and too much caffeine.

And maybe you think that caring about your skin seems silly during finals, but think of it like this: Most of the things that are bad for your skin are bad for you, and most of the things that are good for your skin are good for you. It’s not just your complexion that will benefit from planning ahead to stay healthy for finals week… it might even be your grades!

Pick the Right Snacks

Well-balanced snacks can help keep your energy up and your skin clear.
Well-balanced snacks can help keep your energy up and your skin clear.

Here’s a pro tip: The best answer to “What should I eat to stay alert during finals week?” is not, “ALL THE SUGAR” — and not only do I know that from personal experience, but I have science backing me up. Sugar seems to bring out the worst in skin. It contributes to acne and aging (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Ending Aging).

In in vitro studies and in in vivo studies on mice, researchers found that sugar decreases the activity of orexin. So what’s orexin? It’s a neuropeptide that helps to dictate how much energy you have (Neuron). Having a lot of orexin in your system increases energy output — i.e. results in your feeling more energetic. Having a decreased amount of orexin in the body results in decreased energy output, which is that sluggish, post-sugar-rush feeling you get (Wired).

While sugar and carbohydrates decrease orexin, protein has been found to cause an increase in this pep-you-up neuripeptide. So what’s a busy student to eat? The key here is balance. Try to find snacks that have a balance of carbohydrates and protein: Think of things like: an apple with peanut butter, Greek yogurt with fruit, veggies and hummus, nuts, and dried fruit, etc.

This will be particularly helpful if you’re not getting enough rest (but really, you should be getting rest).

Get Some Sleep. Seriously.

If you want to perform your best on exams and keep skin looking good, you should do more sleeping that occasionally nodding off on top of your books.
If you want to perform your best on exams and keep skin looking good, you should do more sleeping that occasionally nodding off on top of your books.

It might not be easy to tear yourself away from studying or working during finals week to snatch a few Z’s, but it could definitely be worth it for your skin and your work. Those people who don’t get enough sleep tend to have a harder time maintaining a positive mood and have a decrease in cognitive function during stress tests (International Journal of Psychophysiology). So, essentially, losing sleep makes you less effective at handling the stress of finals week, contributing to your stress.

And the stress that comes with not sleeping can really do a number on your skin. Long-term sleep deprivation seems like an obvious culprit for skin problems, but even short-term sleep deprivation can do damage. Because skipping sleep contributes to stress, short-term studies have think that the combination of behaviors (such as increased stress) that come along with missing snoozes can results in decreased barrier function along with a decrease in other functions of the skin (Medical Hypotheses).

Sleep goes in sleep cycles of 90 minutes, with the third and fourth stages being the most important for repairing tissue and releasing hormones to restore skin (National Sleep Foundation). Continually missing these cycles means your body — and skin — cannot repair themselves well, which explains why a week getting only a handful of sleep can make you feel pretty bad overall.

The best possible scenario is to have a regular waking and sleeping time that gives you an uninterrupted seven to eight hours of sleep. But if you can’t muster that, at least try to get some sleep. Sleep deprivation has been shown to impair short term memory, which means that if you cram for an exam with no sleep, you’ll remember less than if you’d taken time to slumber (Journal of Experimental Psychology).

Skip the Coffee … Unless You’re Addicted

If you're not already addicted, it might be best to skip the coffee for finals week.
If you’re not already addicted, it might be best to skip the coffee for finals week.

Coffee is a fickle friend.

As it turns out, coffee is has benefits and downsides for skin. While it can give you a nice antioxidant boost that has skin-saving benefits, it’s also been shown to thin the dermis, which is something that happens naturally during the aging process — not something you want to speed up (Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology).

But it could also affect your performance. On the one hand, coffee has been shown to improve performance in cognitive tests in several studies (Psychopharmacology, Neuropsychobiology). But a Johns-Hopkins report questions these findings, suggesting that after reviewing several studies that many of the cognitive impairments discussed are the work of caffeine withdrawal. These researchers suggest that the benefits of coffee drinking come only to those who are already addicted to caffeine, because they’re actually combating withdrawal (Psychopharmacology).

These researchers argue that abstaining from caffeine should be tested for cognitive benefits. And some researchers think the adrenal response you get from caffeine could increase anxiety, causing you to be even more stressed, bad for you and your skin. So if you’re not a regular coffee drinker already, finals might not be the best time to start. But if you’re guzzling java regularly, don’t give it up during finals — your cognitive abilities could decrease while you’re in withdrawal.

Limit Stress

I know, I know, this is almost silly in relation to finals week. But stress does awful things to your skin. When you get stressed, your skin’s endocrine system releases cortisol, and that decreases the rate of skin healing, increases inflammation, and can cause collagen to break down (Dr. Amy Wechsler). Getting stressed out regularly deprives your body of oxygen that it needs and increase skin disorders like acne, eczema, and psoriasis (Beautiful Skin).

So how can you limit stress? (Aside, of course, from having prepared all semester and not procrastinating.)

Make sure you get enough sleep, eat well, and drink plenty of water, first and foremost. But there are other things you can do. Write to do lists to keep things organized, take regular breaks, and get moving every so often — a brief walk has been shown to improve mood and reduce stress (Science Daily).

Bottom Line

If you want to be a friend to your skin — and, let’s face it, to yourself — take care of yourself during finals. Skip the sugar and look for snacks that have a balance of complex carbohydrates and protein, get plenty of rest, don’t choose that week to start your coffee addiction, and keep stress to a minimum. It’s easy to get pulled into the lure of finals week behavior — stressing out, pulling all-nighters, and subsisting on sugar and caffeine — but your skin (and possibly your grades) with thank you for abstaining.

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