As college students, we have very busy schedules. We have our regular class times, study times, times to eat, sleep, and socialize. The “perfect” student would be able to do all of those things without any help or complain. However, that student probably does not exist. I’m sure a lot of you have late nights spent studying that consist of drinking cup after cup of coffee. But what some people don’t know is that drinking all of that coffee is actually bad for your bodies and mind. However, drinking coffee in moderation is perfectly okay (considering I’m drinking a cup while writing this!). It is known that coffee actually makes you more nervous. Who would want to be more nervous for that exam that you’re cramming for the night before?!
When you’re facing little sleep, but need to focus, here’s a cheat sheet to help you keep that coffee consumption under control for a productive and healthy cram sesh. Cramming is a whole lot worse when you’ve got the jitters!
Night Before An Exam
The night before you take a exam is when you want your best sleep. It takes about 8 hours for caffeine to leave your system, so depending on your bedtime, try to avoid any coffee after 3pm. Sometimes it is hard to fall asleep the night before because you’re worried about the exam. Some soothing teas can help you fall asleep, like chamomile tea or passionflower tea. Chamomile tea is also known as “Sleepy Time” tea. This is helpful because there is NO caffeine in it! Does anyone else have a thousand thoughts about possible exam questions going through their minds before a test like me?! Passionflower tea helps calm your mind while falling asleep. This sounds like a great tea to me!
Day Of Exam
Green tea is basically known as the best tea to drink for almost everything. It has so many health benefits that it helps everything across the board. The day of your exam is when you want your brain to be the most alert. Green tea is perfect to help enhance your cognitive functions and especially helps with your memory. It also a perfect amount of natural caffeine in it to help you stay awake if you’re having one of those days where studying is putting you to sleep.
All-Nighters
Pulling all-nighters can be hard especially if your body isn’t used to it. By the time it gets to a certain point in the night your body starts to get ready for sleep because it’s used to that. However, there are a few ways to help when you’re doing this. By the time you reach for your fourth cup of coffee your hand are shaking and you’re starting to feel wired. This isn’t good for your body and will not help the studying process. Instead of going for coffee, drink tea, to keep your caffeine intake more moderate. Black tea tends to have the most caffeine out of the teas, so if you need it, make it black (and I’m not talking about coffee!)
If You’re Feeling Sick
Being sick in college is probably one of the worst things that could happen. Not having your parents there to help take care of you is hard especially if you’re in your Freshman year. During this time period tea will become your best friend. The best tea to drink at this time is green tea for its health benefits, but any tea with honey will help soothe your cold.
Meeting Friends at the Coffee Shop
As a college student your friends basically become your siblings and your parents. You bounce ideas off of them and they often help take care of you when you need it. Meeting friends at a coffee shop, or Starbucks, is a great way to relax after your stressful day studying and going to class. If you’ve already had your daily coffee, opt for tea when meeting up with friends. As shown above, tea has many benefits to your health. One of my favorite reasons to drink tea is that it makes you relaxed and happy. Happy tea and happy friends make for a happier you!
