Happy Dead Week! You may be feeling as desperate as a suicide-note, but as determined to survive as Gloria Gaynor, so you have probably shut yourself from the world by holing into a study corner. Life can be tough for an academic hermit, however, even if only for a week. Personal  hygiene might go to the dumps, sleep might be forgone, and sanity will follow soon after. Just don’t let your dead week’s farewell to the world become a final one! Here are a few survival tips:

1. Study Outside

Generally, it is sunny whenever you are miserable, so why not take advantage of this week’s good weather and study outside? Light and warmth will ward off those dark and despairing thoughts.

2. Study with People

Misery loves company! Companionship may or may not make you more productive, but it will at the least reduce your stress, particularly if you organize a massage train.

3. Pet something cute

Last week the Cal Student to Student Peer Counseling Group (SSPC) organized a stress free week, which included a very popular pet therapy event. The event assumed that petting cute animals would soothe students, and how right they were! Even if you don’t have a pet, you could find something cute, fuzzy, small, etc, and test its de-stressing qualities. Or maybe simply the act of petting will do. There are multiple variables involved here, so test them out.

4. Listen to classical music

For a while there has been this idea floating around that listening to classical music makes you smarter/facilitates cognition. True or not, why not ride the placebo effect?

5. Don’t rely too much on coffee (or other substances)

At least, don’t start up a habit that doesn’t already exist. Chances are if you don’t normally drink coffee, taking shots of espresso during this time crunch will probably make you more jittery than productive. Also, don’t take an energy boost after pulling consecutive all-nighters – energy boosts are not that magical.

6. Eat Real Food

Why would you want to study or take a test while fueled only on sodium soaked ramen? Thinking actually burns calories, so don’t forget to eat a real meal in addition to your study snacks.

7. Watch the naked run

While other colleges have an underwear run, Berkeley has a naked run. (Good or bad, depends.) But if you happen to be in main stacks when it happens you can chose to relax and watch the show, or steal other people’s desks when they leave to watch, or, depending on how desperate you are feeling by this point, rip off your clothes and join the free.

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