Being in college may be portrayed as a carefree time for fun and games away from parents’ critical gaze,  but in truth it’s relentlessly stressful. In fact, more than almost 88% of college kids say they are stressed about exams, student loans, academic performance, homework, and social life.

And virtually all of them say that stress affects their mental health.

How do they cope? One survey of around 1,000 college students found that sleeping was the No. 1 way. Exercising (No. 2), eating (No. 3), drinking alcohol (No. 4), meditating (No. 5), and ignoring stress (No. 6) rounded out the students' favorite coping mechanisms.

Study after study shows exercise and meditation dispel stress hormones, change your self-image, improve sleep, and increase feel-good neurotransmitters such as serotonin.

On the other hand, excess sleep — as opposed to healthful, restorative sleep — can fuel depression and make it harder to cope. And overeating and excess alcohol are shortcuts to the blues.

If you want a positive stress-buster, you can start with walnuts. That might sound nuts, but a study published in the journal Nutrients found that eating half a cup of walnuts a day — at the beginning of a semester, during exams, and two weeks after exams — improved students' self-reported measures of mental health, their gut microbial diversity (the researchers checked), and sleep quality.

Walnuts convey these benefits because they are protein-rich and loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and phytochemicals that protect against premature aging, inflammation, and metabolic syndrome.

So go nuts.