Imagine you’re about to write your last exam of the year (not so hard to imagine) for that course you’ve dreaded all term. You glance around the exam room at the ranks of your compatriots, filling in their student numbers. Your mouth has gone dry, your hands are sweaty, and your heart is beating like crazy.
Okay, now imagine you’re in a forest, camping with some friends. You’re alone by your tent, when suddenly a black bear materializes behind the trees.
Same reaction? Thought so.
We talk about stress all the time, but how does it work? When we first encounter a frightening or demanding situation, our bodies increase adrenaline production, along with stress hormones like cortisol. The body then mobilizes its available energy, and suppresses digestion, growth, reproduction, and the immune system. These actions are mediated by the sympathetic nervous system, which controls automatic processes like breathing and heart rate.
We are all born with an instinctive stress response. Since stress rallies the body’s energy to give us added strength and endurance, it helps us cope with potentially dangerous situations like, running away from bears. That’s why our response to stress is often called the “fight or flight” response: you’re pumped and ready to either fight, or get the heck out of there.
However, the things we worry about today aren’t quite the same as those of our cave-dwelling ancestors. Running away from predators has given way to assignments, deadlines, and traffic jams, which is why stress is not always adaptive in modern life.
In fact, many researchers claim that our current pace of life activates stress hormones regularly rather than only in emergency situations. One study showed that riding on the subway provokes adrenaline release. The longer the ride and the more crowded the subway car, the greater the hormonal response. Researchers saw similar results for students in PhD oral exams. This stress doesn’t help us and in the long term can have negative effects on health.
Hans Selye, a pioneer in early stress research, defined stress as “the rate of all wear and tear caused by life.” He focused on the connection between stress and disease, and showed that prolonged or frequent stress leads to the breakdown of the body’s organ systems and increased disease susceptibility.
For example, research shows that stressful exam periods lead to a decline in immune cell production. A recent and somewhat ironic study performed on dental students demonstrated the effect of university exams on the healing of mouth wounds. In the experiment, two small wounds were placed on the roof of the mouth of participants. The first wound was given during the summer vacation, while the second was given three days before the first major term evaluation. Healing of the second wound took 40 per cent longer and immunological response decreased by 68 per cent during the exam period.
Studies like these offer some important lessons: stress can be more harmful than you think. So come exam time, just remember that getting stressed out won’t help you. Instead, just focus on staying relaxed. Unless your exam involves bears.
