With the new Campus Center underway, the Campus Facility Committee should seriously consider designating a resting section.
The unofficial nap areas on campus can sometimes be taken by those who are actually studying or are in too public an area to get quality
shut eye.
A siesta nook on campus would relieve busy students from the daily stresses of juggling college life, work and family. Students who work night
shifts, who return to chaotic homes or who simply do not get enough sleep need a place to rest and relax.
A nap area would benefit students and reduce the amount of class time any professor uses to stop lecture to wake up the kid on the third row far
right side of the classroom because they started snoring.
Sleep is not just a source of energy. A nap of 60 minutes improves alertness for up to 10 hours. A designated section for quiet and z’s is a great solution to more problems than one might think. It would boost student academic success, since only a 45-minute nap improves learning and memory a
Harvard study reported.
These areas would help students with stress. A 2008 British study suggested that just knowing a nap was coming was enough to lower blood pressure. It is a natural part of human biology.
In western society, we have pushed all our necessary sleep into one long nightly period. Our bodies would work at a higher capacity if all that sleep was broken into two parts of the day.
This is the reason why some people experience an onset of midday drowsiness after lunch, which is usually confused with the food coma blues, but it is actually just the body responding to the afternoon quiescent phase in its physiology.
Wake Forest University, James Madison University, Savannah College of Art and Design and other college campuses have turned to nap sections as solutions for sleep-deprived students.
Campuses have set guidelines, like 30 to 45 minute sleep restrictions for a constant rotation of student nappers, keeping the space a tech-free zone and setting up lockers and charging stations for personal items. To keep a sanitary sleep environment, University of Michigan uses vinyl cots and disposable pillowcases for each passing student.
A student worker appointed by administration can maintain and monitor the nap section to restrict dubious behavior.
Creating an online uniform sleep schedule for students to reserve a spot allows for the same sleep and rise times. No alarms going off for individual nappers and no awkward stranger waking a student from a well-deserved nap.
Naps are good for the body and brain. The option to snooze before class instead of in class would allow students to sleep responsibly and achieve greater academic success.
