Test your lifestyle

Many students feel stressed out during their studies. Feelings of inadequacy and that you have not studied enough often arise, as the study pace at university level is often high.

In addition to the study requirements, there are a number of other areas in life that can cause you to feel pressure and stress. Too much stress for a longer period of time can result in illness and poor mental health. Below we have gathered some simple tips on how you can reduce your stress during your studies.

How you think about your stress and how you interpret it can be more important that what you might think. Keep in mind that without stress hormones in your body, you would not leave your bed in the morning. Stress and stress hormones are necessary for us to want to perform, develop, and do things that are meaningful to us.

It is not possible to live a life without stress and it is not dangerous to feel stress from time to time. Our bodies are designed to react when we feel a threat or danger. It is not until the threat becomes constant and persists over time that it risks causing health problems. Make it a habit to treat yourself to a few hours every day during which you let go of all demands, to offer your body and mind the opportunity to relax. During this time, you give yourself permission to do whatever you want, without feeling bad about it.

Recuperation is fundamental when handing stress and is not only about sleep and getting some rest. To talk a walk or jog in the forest, without music, is an excellent form of recuperation. It has been proven that listening to natural sound and spending time in nature reduces the stress level in our bodies. Find out what works best for you to recuperate. It should be an activity that gives you energy and joy, an activity that you find so interesting that you cannot think about anything else than being in the present.

Your breathing reveals your stress level. People tend to create less beneficial breathing patterns when they are constantly stressed over a longer period of time. It is common that you do not exhale quite enough and, therefore, “gasp for breath” when inhaling, which results in the activation of muscles that normally are used only when you need extra much oxygen (for instance, when running). These muscles do not have good stamina and become exhausted quickly, which results in overstrain that can show itself as headache, back pains, etc. Try listening to your breathing. A relaxed breathing is even, easy, soft, and quiet. It does not have to be deep, when you are sitting still you do not need that much oxygen.

Stress and stress behaviour are often learnt behavioural patterns, that we have repeated many times over. Observe your stress behaviour by keeping  a journal and make notes of at what times and in what situations you feel the most stress during the day. Make a detailed plan/vision for what you would like to do and how you would like to behave instead in these situations and try to use as many of your five senses as possible when creating the vision.

Our need for sleep is individual, but most of us need to sleep between 6 and 8 hours per night. Our sleep, and our deep sleep in particular, is important for recuperation, cell renewal, and to handle infections.

Sleep is also of significant importance for memory storage and is, therefore, extra important when we study and want to learn new things. Here follows a few small tips on how to improve your sleeping habits.

• Have regular sleeping hours, get up and go to bed at the same time every day.
• Use the last two hours before going to bed to unwind. If you have sleeping problems, try to reduce impressions by reading a nice book or listening to calm music.
• Our bodies prefer a cool environment when we are to sleep, so make sure it is cool in your bedroom.
• If you have not fallen asleep within 30 minutes, get out of bed and wait until you are tired enough to fall asleep.
• If you cannot sleep due to being worried, try to accept your sleeplessness and think, it is ok that I am not sleeping, I will just lie here and rest for a while.
• It takes about 30 minutes for the brain to understand that is has been sleeping, which means that if you wake up after 25 minutes, your brain will not understand that is has slept at all. The human brain is self-regulatory as long as we do not use different forms of sleeping pills. If you have had too little sleep one night, your brain will compensate for this by extending the deep sleep the night after.
• If you often lie awake thinking about all the things you must fix the next day, make it a habit to have pen and paper net to the bed where you can write it down. Once it is on the paper, let go of it by thinking that it is not something that you should or can do anything about right now, when it is time to sleep.
• Even small quantities of alcohol, like 1–2 glasses of wine, have a negative effect on your sleep, since your body prioritises to take care of the alcohol over sleep. If you want to perform your best, avoid alcohol.
• Avoid tough exercise the last three hours before going to bed, as tough workout will strongly increase your level of alertness.

Regular exercise can contribute to improved sleep, since sitting still a lot results in a reduced need of sleep.

We differentiate between the concepts exercise and workout. Exercise means all forms of physical activity, from doing the dishes to walking, while workout is about getting your pulse up when you are out of breath and sweating.

Below follows a few tips on how you can increase your level of physical activity.

• Make sure to get up and move around at least a few minutes every hour. It has been established in different studies that a lot of time spent sitting still is harmful to our health. Make it a habit to stand up every now and then to summarise and reflect on what you have just read.
• Spend time outdoors in daylight every day, a quick walk during lunch is good.
• Make it a habit to always walk or take your bicycle to where you are going, and use the stairs instead of the lift.
• Make rules for how much screen time you can have during your leisure time, since this often involves additional time spent sitting still.
• It is good to have it as a goal to work out three times a week and let your workout continue for at least 30 minutes.
• Plan your workout, it is better to increase intensity than to extend the duration (the time during which you workout), this gives better effect when it comes to increasing oxygen uptake capacity.
• Workout is so much more than going to the gym. Find an activity that you enjoy, this will ensure it actually takes place.

The better shape you are in, the more energy you will have. Therefore, make sure that you make working out a habit, as this will improve both your concentration and your ability to learn.

Your body needs nutrition from carbohydrates, fat and protein, as well as vitamins, minerals, and liquid. By eating a balanced diet and nutritious food, your body will get what it needs.

Try to think long-term when you put something in your mouth instead of following the short-term, immediately rewarding effect that sugar and high fat food has on the human brain. Below you will find a few tips that can make it easier.

• Eat regularly, at least three times a day. Our need for energy differs a lot depending on the activity level. Avoid eating in between meals and learn how to recognise feelings of hunger and being full. After a meal, you should feel energised and have energy to work for 4–5 hours.
• Plan your meals, make a weekly menu and do weekly shopping for groceries.
• Cook from scratch using good products. It does not have to take a long time to cook good food.
• Make it a habit to sit down and eat, chew thoroughly and let your meal take time.
• Eat a lot of vegetables, fruit and berries, every day, and choose full grain products, that give you a better feeling of being full and contain more nutrition.
• Good fat is found in olive oil, rapeseed oil, coconut oil, fat fish, and unsalted peanuts.
• Your brain needs carbohydrates to function and at low intake of carbohydrates your body transforms fat and protein into water-soluble ketone bodies, that can pass through the brain barrier. Good carbohydrates are found in organic vegetables/root vegetables/legumes, fruits, berries, full grain products, high-fiber products (for instance, fiber grains) and dark rye bread.

Drink 1.5–2 liters of water every day and avoid all forms of liquid that contains sugar or sweeteners.

What is health? What is sexual health? Is it only “to not be ill”? The Student Welfare Office works preventively with sexual health based on the perspective to reduce the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections among students.

We inform about safer sex and how to test yourself, but also talk with students about relationships, self-esteem, and sexuality. To our help, we have a group of volunteering students called P6.

P6 – to reduce the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections

P6 works based on peer education and the concept “equal teaches equal” – which means that we want to spread information in a relaxed way – students teach students. The aim is to increase knowledge about and reduce the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections. As a P6er, you will, among other things, take part in the handing out of condoms and information on spread of infection at Welcome Fairs, WORLD AIDS Day, and other theme days and events. P6 is also present at different student parties like pub nights and student sittings. The motto is “Enjoy sex – play it safe”. If you want to join P6, you will get to take a basic course on which you learn more about safer sex, condoms, routes of infection, etc. You will find more information on P6’s Facebook page. Are you interested in joining, send an email to P6@lnu.se.

Self-test for chlamydia

For more information about taking tests or contact with a midwife in Kronoberg, visit 1177. You can also read about how to order home or collect a self-test for chlamydia.

Students in Kalmar can order self-tests for chlamydia through 1177 and there also learn more about taking tests and contact with the health care concerning sexual health. Most counties in Sweden offer the possibility to order self-tests via 1177.se, check what applies for your home region if your national registration is somewhere else.

Learn more about sexual health Would you like to know more about preventive work relating to sexual health? Contact Maria Larsson, maria.larsson@lnu.se.

Preventive work relating to ANDT is an important part of the Student Welfare Office’s work. The abbreviation ANDT stands for Alcohol, Narcotics, Doping and Tobacco.

We meet both students who want to change their own behaviour of usage and those who are worried about someone close to them. As part of our preventive work, we collaborate with Linnaeus Union, student pubs, municipalities, the regions, the police, and the county administrative boards to make sure that university life partying is not harmful, to support those who want to quit using tobacco, to work for a student life free from narcotics, and workout free from doping.

Many think of their student years as a time to party. That is ok, we do not have our aims set on putting a stop to this. However, if you choose to party using alcohol, we hope that you will do this in a way that does not expose you to the risks that come with intensive consumption. Therefore, we work with a mentor training programme before the introduction weeks, we send out material on alcohol habits to all students and offer training to other key individuals, like staff at the student pubs. As a student, you are welcome to contact us if you have any thoughts or questions concerning your own or someone else’s alcohol habits. We also meet many students who have grown up with a parent or close relative who has been drinking too much and feels a need to talk to someone about how this has affected them.

Learn more about alcohol and narcotics:
Alkoholhjälpen (only in Swedish)
Alkohollinjen (only in Swedish)
The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (Where you can also learn more about Tobacco and Doping)

Droginfo Primarily about cannabis (only in Swedish)

Cannabishjälpen for users of cannabis who need help, and for next of kin. (only in Swedish)

Tobacco

Smoking cigarettes or snuffing (using the Swedish tobacco snus) affects how you feel in many ways, which is why we always bring this up at our individual talks. The Student Welfare Office collaborates with Campushälsan Växjö and the health clinics Stensö and Kvarnholmen in Kalmar, which all offer tobacco use cessation in different ways. You can learn more on Sluta-röka-linjen.

You now also have the opportunity to receive cost-free text support to quit smoking or snuffing. Take the tobacco test among our lifestyle tests and the feedback you receive will contain the code you need to be entitled to the text support.

Would you like to know more about the Student Welfare Office’s preventive work relating to ANDT? Contact the section manager at the Student Welfare Office, Maria Larsson, maria.larsson@lnu.se