Spring break is just around the corner, bringing a week of relaxing, procrastinating and sleeping. Students take the time to recuperate from midterms and the stress of college. Here are some tips to stay mentally healthy as well as active during Spring Break.
First, keep a regular sleep schedule or start one if you lost it during midterms. Sticking to a sleep schedule is challenging. You’re trying to balance studying, friends or significant others, and staying in touch with family while at college. A break can give you the chance to start up a sleep schedule or get back into it. The hardest part is staying with it. Set alarms to get yourself out of bed and to shut your phone off for the night. Also, sleep schedules don’t mean you can’t nap. In fact, taking a short nap, roughly half an hour to an hour, can keep you from sleeping the following morning. Start small and work towards having a solid sleep routine before the end of the semester.
If you workout at all, keep up your routine during the break. If you want to get started, take advantage of this week off. Whenever you’re starting to workout, start small. Stretch before trying to run a marathon. Don’t expect your body to handle the exercises on the first day. And don’t be discouraged by a sore body afterwards. Sticking to the workout will slowly build up your strength and endurance. Try not to use any machines or equipment if you’re starting out. If you know you don’t have time to run over to the Bowers Fitness Center, then you’ll most likely drop the routine. Using walls, floors, household items and stuff simply lying around the house can work just as well as a fully fitted gym.
The most dreaded part of break is the homework. Many professors assign projects and papers in the hopes they will get done over the break. Unfortunately, this is not the case for students. However, the result is powering through the assignments as soon as you’re back on campus. Obviously, this generates an enormous amount of stress. Break up your assignments and work on them a little bit each day. As long as you don’t have them due the day we return, you can save to finish the assignment when you get back to your dorm. This may be helpful to kick start your mind into gear to get out of vacation mode.
No matter how you spend your Spring Break, keep these health tips in mind. Don’t fret if you goof off the entire time. Drink water, sleep and eat. You’re doing great! Enjoy your break!
