Ah, school. In many students’ minds it is not so much a safe haven for learning as it is a base from which we frantically complete our academic obligations in a state of constant mental exertion. We’re tired. Our minds are overworked, sometimes to the point of delirium. We’re almost always hungry, and that kind of makes us angry as well. And on top of it all, we never shut up about any of it, no matter the audience.

According to a 2014 study conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, being around stressful situations or watching your peers wilt under pressure is enough to induce the release of stress hormones in our own bodies. The condition of one frenzied, anxiety-laden individual can trigger comparable emotions in an observer: heart rate will go up, and cortisol levels — your stress hormones — will shoot up, too. In other words, our stress stresses other people out, and vice versa.

It can be referred to as empathic stress, and if you are in any way an emotional or commiserative human being (which you definitely are, at least a little), then you’re subject to absorb some secondhand stress. So next time you see a petrified student scurrying through the halls at the end of a passing period, don’t be surprised if you start to feel a little tense yourself.

Wouldn’t we save ourselves and our peers a whole load of anxiety if we all just took life a pace or two slower? Before a test, wouldn’t it be nice not to hear the high-strung clamor of half your classmates anxiously flipping through their notes one final time? And I certainly can’t be the only one who is filled with excess dread at the sound of other students feverishly quizzing each other as the test is handed out or comparing their answers as soon as it’s handed in.

Game plan here? Take deep breaths. Think of others before you lose your cool, because you may unconsciously be triggering an epidemic of reactionary panic on an observer’s part. Remember that a little stress of the right sort can be beneficial, and it’s normal to feel anxious about deadlines and tests, but learning to maintain your stress is more important.

For all of us.