Boys and girls, summer has officially ended! Here we are again paying for classes and books, trying to figure out where the hell that one building is, rushing from class to class, and feeling grossly overwhelmed upon receiving several lengthy class syllabi. For the next few months you will endure the stress and anxieties brought upon you by raging professors, long-winded papers, late nights, balancing work and school, and last but not least the social life of a college student.

As rousing as this may sound, some of you may not be too thrilled to kick off the brand new semester. For those who fall under this upsetting category, I have some very heartening news!

Research has shown that having sexual intercourse actually makes the reactivity of your blood pressure far better under circumstances of stress. In a study done with several participants falling under categories of having regular penile-vaginal intercourse, non penile-vaginal intercourse (such as oral or anal), and having no intercourse of any sort, those participants who were frequently engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse were found to have much lower blood pressure measures. Moral of the story, go out and get some (responsibly). You’ll feel great due to some obvious physical sensations, but your body will also release multiple  hormones that will allow you to cope better with the large amount of built up stress of this upcoming semester. You may just find that those late night cramming sessions won’t be quite as bad as you remembered them and now you have a perfect excuse to take a little study break.

There is, of course, some irony in what I’m telling you. When we are stressed, sometimes the last solution to be considered by most people is the sex drive. Don’t believe me? Consider a married couple coming home to one another, far too exhausted from life to want to get down.

Sufficient sleep (power naps are good); eating healthy and exercising regularly are ways to give you more energy; therefore increasing your desire to have sex. Self-help books will tell you how great you are, but you won’t feel great until you get up and take action by getting some action.

So while standing in line at the bookstore, make sure you add a box of condoms to your supplies. No one wants to have an average semester, so get on top (or bottom) and take control!