Symptoms of study exhaustion are an uninspired and unpleasant feeling, massive fatigue, and a feeling of inadequacy. Learn how to prevent its development, and what to do if fatigue has already caught you by surprise.

SIGNS OF EXHAUSTION:

  • You're tired all the time, and rest doesn’t help.
  • You’re often irritable and/or tearful.
  • You're having trouble remembering things.
  • You question the relevance of your studies.
  • You always feel that you are not doing enough for your studies.

Source: Nyyti ry

Studying is a student's job, and while an employee may suffer from work fatigue, the student may be threatened by study fatigue. It is a study-related stress syndrome consisting of three factors:

  • Fatigue that does not subside with rest
  • Cynical attitude towards studying
  • Feeling of inadequacy as a student.

In addition, study exhaustion may involve difficulties in emotional regulation and impaired performance.

“Exhaustion can be recognized by unenthusiasm, cynicism, and a constant unpleasant and stale feeling. The exhausted person can be cynical and irritable, and often also has trouble with sleeping,” says Satu Salmi, student psychologist.

Student, monitor your stress level

Symptoms of exhaustion may occur even if you do not have widespread study exhaustion yet. However, a symptom may lead to another if you do not react in time. Exhaustion-level fatigue can lead to a decrease in emotional and cognitive functional capacity, which in turn may result in distancing yourself from others and feeling inadequate.

It would therefore be a good idea for students to learn to monitor their stress levels and react to them in time.

“Everyone reacts to stress in their own way. This is why students should know themselves. It would be a good idea if the student paid attention to how they react and discovered the signs of excessive stress in time,” Salmi thinks.

Get help in a prolonged situation

If normal study-related stress starts to turn into fatigue, you should seek help. It is difficult to define general instructions for seeking help – this is also unique.

“It is common that how you feel varies in the challenges of everyday studies. Sometimes you feel more energetic, sometimes more tired. However, you should react if the situation is prolonged and unchanging. If you feel like you have no strength and ordinary means of recovery do not help, you should seek help,” says Salmi.

A student psychologist's office is one of the places where you can get help. You can seek their help at your own discretion without an admission note. You can visit the student psychologist one to five times.

“In general, we work together to find out what the situation is and what it is about, and then consider ways of facilitating the situation. Student psychologists also guide students to seek further help, if necessary,” says Salmi.

She encourages students to seek help early because there is nothing to lose.

“If you change your mind, you can always cancel the booked appointment and someone lucky will get it. In general, it is not a good idea to postpone thinking about a bad feeling, but rather to stop and think about what it means.

Allow yourself to be incomplete

If your stress levels have not yet become too high and fatigue has not caught up to you, the development of problems can be prevented and maintain your capacity to study with basic physical care: sleep enough, eat steadily and somewhat healthy, and exercise to a reasonable degree.

“Basic biology always sets certain marginal conditions for us. You should check them and change your course, if necessary,” says Salmi.

Communality and working together also support students’ well-being. When working alone, the risk of accumulating things and rising stress levels is higher.

“I would encourage you to do schoolwork together as much as possible. It is also important to keep working and leisure time separate,” says Salmi.

Last but not least, she mentions allowing yourself to feel incomplete. You don't have to finish everything at once. Sometimes you should get off and do other things with a good conscience – and then go back to your studies again.

“Studying is challenging, and students are constantly pushing themselves to learn new things. If they are involved in several different groups, their work community will also change all the time. You must recover from that kind of work from time to time. It is a good idea to have at least one day off per week.”

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