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Column: Naps increase student productivity

By Elizabeth Eberlin
April 25, 2008

As I write this, my eyes are heavy and my muscles feel weak. It’s 1:30 in the afternoon, my classes have been over for an hour and a half, and I don’t have to go to work until 7 p.m. Right now, all I want to do is lie down in on my couch and take about an hour’s worth of a nice, long nap while the breeze blows in the window. This is also what I wanted to do yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that one.

Forget homework and other such trivial obligations, I just want to sleep. And I’m not alone.

I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that a propensity for siestas was not limited to me alone, and a quick poll of whatever neighbors I could find on their porches on Wednesday garnered some unsurprising results. Almost 100 percent of my neighbors and friends would rather sleep than eat. What is surprising is that we’re not the caffeine-fueled, depressed, insomniac students that national news stories try to say represent the typical college student of our generation. We get six to eight solid hours of sleep per night and extra on the weekends, and still we jump at the chance to nap anytime it arises.

We’re not lazy, nor do we all have mono. It’s just that naps are recharging, they’re stress relieving and often they’re the perfect way to give yourself enough of a boost to get through the afternoon.

So here’s my proposition: Starting next year, the university needs to instate a naptime policy.

One hour starting at 1 p.m. with no classes and minimal campus facilities open in order to encourage students to sleep. They could jazz it up all they wanted with brand-new napping facilities for kids living off campus, and maybe a cutesy tiger-related name like Cat Nap or something, but the point would be a period of time during the day where students were encouraged to relax and take time out for their own well-being without worrying whether they should be working out at the Student Recreation Complex or studying in a computer lab somewhere.

There are many reasons MU should consider the plan I’m offering, but one in particular is very persuasive. Listen up, powers that be. I’m making you a pitch.

Naptime would increase student productivity, which in turn would increase GPA’s all over campus. My trusty go-to Wikipedia.org (under the heading “Siesta”) tells me that human circadian rhythms cause us all to hit a lull during the period right after lunch, so it only makes sense not to have class or obligations scheduled during a time when we’re all programmed to be drowsy and stupid.

A scheduled one-hour sleep period in the early afternoon in which to relax and unwind would charge the student population up for the afternoon, in which more classes could then be scheduled.

You think MU is top-tier institutions now; just imagine what it could be if we were all rested up.

The publicity would be enormous and more than ever, students and their dollars would flock to the University of Missouri.

My logic is skewed a little by personal opinion, and it’s wishful thinking on my part MU will ever even look into a policy that involves shutting down campus and giving students a break for an hour.

But even if my pitch to the university fails, there’s nothing stopping me from grabbing a pillow and starting the nap revolution on my own. Viva la siesta!

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