Another academic year is about to begin for students, while some may have already started their new school year. While the educational journey is truly rewarding, it can also be demanding–a rollercoaster of deadlines, exams, extracurricular activities, late-night study sessions, and back-to-back classes.
In Gao Xinhang’s study entitled “Academic Stress and Academic Burnout in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediating Model,” the demands for students’ performance can lead to stress and anxiety, which results in burnout, affecting their overall well-being. While caffeine commonly keeps students awake to accomplish their tasks, there’s a healthier, more effective solution to academic stress–and that is massage therapy.
Whether you’re in high school juggling academics and extracurriculars or a college student balancing the pressure of academics and navigating the chaos of adulting, massage can be your strongest ally to refresh your mind and body.
Here’s how massage can revitalize a student’s life:
1. Releasing Tension
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), stress often manifests physically–tight muscles and shoulders. As a student, a school day could mean hunched postures over desks and endless hours of writing or typing, affecting posture and resulting in muscle tension. Massage directly addresses these physical symptoms. According to the article “Relieve Tight Muscles” by Physio.co.uk, a deep tissue massage can help release muscle tension by using deep pressure to help the muscles move freely, increasing blood flow and muscle temperature.
2. Calming the Overactive Mind
Ann Pietrangelo’s article “The Effects of Stress on Your Body” emphasized that stress loads the body with hormones like cortisol (stress hormone), which can lead students to have a racing mind, difficulty sleeping, and a constant feeling of being “on edge.” An hour of massage can help reduce cortisol levels.
In the article “Decreased Cortisol” by Physio.co.uk, massages like deep tissue massage can help reduce cortisol levels by using deep strokes to apply deep, firm pressure to reduce muscular stress and tension, resulting in lower anxiety and promoting a peaceful state of mind.
3. Boosting Focus and Concentration
Qingjin Liu, Yong Liu, Xuechen Leng, Jinfeng Han, Feng Xia, and Hong Chen found in their study entitled “Impact of Chronic Stress on Attention Control: Evidence from Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Analyses” that higher levels of stress affects a person’s attention span, making it hard to absorb new information or concentrate on tasks–the same thing that happens when students are overwhelmed by stress because of academic overload. The good news is that there are acupressure points that help increase focus and concentration, as written in “DIY Acupressure Massage for Focus and Concentration.” Accordingly, it can be found in the article “How Massage Therapy Improves Mental Clarity and Focus” that a Thai massage can target these points by combining acupressure with assisted stretching to relieve tension and improve flexibility. This improves the body’s natural flow by focusing on key energy pathways and helps release stress that has been stored in muscles and joints, leading to a calm mind with improved concentration.
4. Improving Sleep Quality
Some students often choose to pull an all-nighter rather than sleep to finish their requirements, which leads to sleep deprivation. At Massage Daily PH, we believe that a good sleeping routine leads to success. According to the article “Sleep Well: How Massage Therapy can Improve Your Quality of Sleep,” massage can help fight insomnia by increasing the body’s production of serotonin, or what is known as the “happiness hormone.” From serotonin, the brain also makes melatonin, the hormone that tells the brain to “slow down” and get ready for sleep. Moreover, in the article “Using Remedial Massage to Improve Sleep Quality,” deep tissue massage can be ideal in improving sleep by using techniques that help relieve tension and knots, as well as increase blood flow, lower stress hormones, and promote relaxation.
Even short, regular massage sessions can make a big difference in your academic journey. This could be a professional session once a month, or even a few minutes of self-massage during study breaks. In the demanding world of academics, giving students the resources they need to manage stress is just as important as the curriculum itself. Massage is a holistic and highly effective approach to help students unwind, boost their focus, and thrive in their educational pursuits.
So to all students out there: instead of being caffeine-fueled, be massage-soothed!
UPLB Intern, Trinity Nicole Policarpio