The holidays and finals are coming up fast and the stress is enough to get to anyone. Stressed out students can turn to tried-and-true methods of drinking more caffeine until they can push through and chain smoking, but here’s a healthy alternative: a quickie.

Quickies, brief and usually spontaneous sexual encounters with little or no foreplay, are the perfect solution to defeat typical holiday worries.

The perfect lovemaking session should last between 3 and 13 minutes, according to a survey of sex therapists published in the May 2008 edition of the “Journal of Sexual Medicine.” The average session is widely regarded as 7.3 minutes.

Sounds like a quickie to me.

But most men disagree with the experts, Cosmopolitan magazine recently reported. According to the magazine’s survey, more than 50 percent of men wanted sex to last roughly 30 minutes, while just more than 25 percent were interested in more than 15 minutes.

Although longer sessions can be fun, the spontaneous and mildly public nature of quickies allow you all kinds of options without the usual fuss. As long as you keep it simple and quick, you can’t go wrong! There’s no foreplay, no props. You can be as aggressive and playful as you’d like! Remember to practice safe sex and keep all activities consensual regardless. Quickies are no excuse to be reckless.

Why am I taking your mind off of presents and holiday parties to make you think about quick and dirty sex, you ask? Because it’s so good for you.

Let’s start with the obvious. Sexual arousal stimulates blood flow throughout the body and delivers oxygen to internal organs and cells, which makes sex healthy for the body. It also awakens the mind and helps burn fat.

If there’s any time to be alert and active, it’s the holidays.

But one of the nicest fringe benefits of a quickie is the rush of endorphins — natural chemicals that make you feel like you’re floating on cloud nine — that happens right after an orgasm. Orgasms aren’t essential during a quickie, but they are quite nice if you manage to get one out in 7 minutes.

Even if you don’t get the chance to orgasm, the rush of blood during a quickie will help release stress and induce happiness so you can walk back out to that holiday party with a dirty little secret and a smile on your face. What could be better?

Upping the risk factor can heighten the rush experienced during a quickie, but try to stay indoors and away from windows as much as possible. Exhibitionism means you run the risk of getting arrested, jailed, fined and labeled as a sex offender if you get caught in the state of California engaging in sexual activities in public.

All the endorphins in the world won’t save you from that buzzkill.

It’s easy to get caught up in all the work to be done at this time of the year, especially when life is already full of endless to-do lists — sex never seems to be at the very top. A Durex study reported that 67 percent of adults have sex once a week, while 8 percent said they had sex at least once a day and 9 percent only once every few months. Quickies can dramatically increase that frequency and help get your sex life back on track.

Quickies also have the power to spice up your sex life, whether alone or with a partner. This time of year is the perfect excuse to up the excitement — you’ve got holiday parties galore.

So grab your significant other, find one or get cozy with yourself at any family or work function. Remember to lock the doors and be discreet!

Oh, and happy holidays.