Students’ top priority during finals season should be sleep, Chief Campus Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman said in a briefing Tuesday with campus media. Van Orman acknowledged the difficulty of balancing deadlines and preparations for summer activities, but emphasized the importance of sleep in retaining information. 

“Sleep is something that is easy to push aside, maybe [you’re] staying up later, trying to finish projects or studying. But we know that sleep and good sleep, [are] necessary to consolidate our memory,” Van Orman said. “If we cram all night, we don’t get good sleep, we’ll actually have poorer memory than if we … had a good night’s sleep before.”

Van Orman recommended eating well, avoiding non-prescribed stimulants, exercising and taking breaks as ways to stay healthy during finals week. She said taking time to hang out with friends and watch television would provide students’ minds with the rest necessary to continue studying throughout the day.

“It’s very easy to procrastinate [and] let your mind wander, so we end up taking as much time off as if we actually intentionally allow ourselves that time to take a break,” Van Orman said. “It’s really hard to concentrate for more than about an hour, so if you’re working for an hour, stand up, take five minutes, walk around and then come back.” 

At the beginning of April, Van Orman said Student Health hadn’t had a month this academic year without seeing new cases of whooping cough. As of April 29, Van Orman said no whooping cough cases had been reported at USC during April, making Student Health hopeful that whooping cough cases are in decline at USC.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration recognizes April 29 as National Fentanyl Awareness Day. Van Orman said illegally manufactured fentanyl often contaminates other drugs, leading people to accidentally consume it when they intend to take heroin, cocaine or ecstasy. 

Naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, is available for free at Engemann and Eric Cohen Student Health Centers via an initiative from NaloxoneSC, an initiative from USC’s student chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists. Van Orman also recommended taking advantage of Student Health’s free fentanyl test strips to avoid accidentally coming in contact with the drug.

“Fentanyl test strips are widely available in many locations, including for free at the front desk of [Engemann Student Health Center],” Van Orman said. “You can just walk in, and there’s a big box right there. You don’t have to ask for them;, you don’t have to talk to anyone;, you can just take them out of the box.”

The Student Health fee that students paid at the beginning of the academic year permits access to Student Health services through May 25. Students wishing to utilize Student Health past the deadline must pay the optional summer Student Health fee. The fee costs $300 for the entire summer, or $175 for one of the summer sessions. Summer session one is May 19 to July 5; summer session two is June 30 to Aug. 17.