The horrible, all-destroying finals are here. In the next week, worlds will change. In the next week, lives are at stake. In the next week, entire futures are determined.

Or maybe not.

This mentality of doom will engulf the campus for the next five days. In reality, finals cause more fear than needed, and this fear may lead to habits that do more harm than good.

Finals are certainly something to be taken seriously. In most classes they determine a major part of your grade and thus require your attention. You can, however, give too much attention to finals.

I often hear horror stories about students staying up three days straight studying or reading an entire textbook in four hours. While these stories sound impressive, they’re not quite as helpful as you might think. I am a firm believer there is a certain point where an additional hour of sleep does more good than an additional hour of studying. Obviously, no sleep in 72 hours crosses that line.

It is suggested adults get eight hours of sleep a night. We all know that’s pretty much a joke for a college student, but I’ve found for most people, the five-six hour range per day is a pretty good standard. If you’re getting less than that, you’re probably beyond the state of functioning properly. Sleeping for five hours the night before a final may sound lazy, but it’s helpful, lazy or not.

There’s no reason to attempt to go over an entire semester’s worth of material in a day or even a week. It took all semester to learn it; it’s a lot of material. In such a short amount of time it would be almost impossible to retain much, if any of it. Our memory decays quickly and has a very limited capacity. This is why learning mnemonics is so helpful. This is also why studying 400 pages of text isn’t so helpful. You just don’t have room in your brain to cram that kind of material into memory.

Over-studying and under-sleeping not only leads to physical and mental barricades, they can also lead to an unhealthy level of stress. Remember to take time to relax while studying. Stress increases the difficulty of committing concepts to memory, which makes studying useless. Fatigue and stress also lead to agitation and jitters, both of which are not conducive to good test-taking. When I find myself becoming too stressed by the stack of study guides on my desk, I take 20 minutes off from studying. Usually, a cup of hot tea and a few quarters of Madden can lower my blood pressure and take the clammy feelings out of my palms – even if those stupid passing cones drive me crazy. For me, being calm and relaxed is just as big a part of being prepared for an exam as knowing the material is.

In the end, the most important thing is to put finals into perspective. Yes, this is the most important week of the semester. But this is just one semester in a long college career, which is a small part in the grand scheme of your life. Finals week is certainly worth your attention. Hopefully you’ve kept yourself prepared for this week all semester, and finishing up that preparation now is important. At the same time, they’re not worth your wellness and sanity. Finals are something to appreciate, and they’re a time to show the knowledge you’ve gained over the semester and to take pride you’re enrolled in an institution of higher learning. Don’t let finals consume your life or fill you with dread. After all, they’re “just” finals.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.