Why We Should Have Nap Rooms at LDH

 While a healthy sleep schedule is a student's responsibility, at times it can be difficult to maintain. After all, it can be a wee bit difficult to achieve the recommended 8 hours of sleep when one has 6 unit tests, 4 presentations, and at least one project they forgot about. Not to mention the worksheets that teachers just adore handing out, as if they’re some type of candy. 

And that's only the school-based side of it. Most of us stay up an extra hour just remembering that one time we called a teacher “mom” (I know you’ve done it, don’t lie), or if our friends secretly hate us, and if we actually deserve life or are just wasting perfectly good oxygen. (Damn this got personal real quick.)  

It should come as no surprise 83.2% of us are addicted to caffeine (my one true love, I could write a thousand odes to). 

So, as you can see, it's just a little bit difficult to get 8 hours of sleep. And while a nap room wouldn’t exactly solve our time management skills (or lack thereof), or our crippling anxiety and self-hatred, it can help us from dozing off in French after pulling 7 different all-nighters in one night. It’s a wonder what a 30-minute nap can do for a cranky teen. 

But how would it work? 

For the prep, the floor should be lined with something like yoga mats (hey, I never said it was gonna be comfortable) and there should be at least one, preferably two, large and powerful speakers. Students must bring their own blankets (if they so desire) and pillows (a requirement to prevent sleep drool).

For the first ten minutes of break the door would be open, lights on, and anyone could walk in. After the initial ten minutes, the lights shut off, the door is locked and people settle down. At this stage, any talkers, or walkers, should be kicked out by a combination of peer pressure and authority pressure. Now everyone can take a short nap for exactly thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes later, the lights would switch on and the most ear-piercing and annoying alarm would erupt from the aforementioned speakers, loud enough to wake the dead, otherwise known as overworked high schoolers. Now students would have ten minutes to get to class and would be refreshed by their power nap.

Boom! Your group of cranky, zombified, rotting, stinky corpses, have now turned into slightly less cranky and rotten (still reek of crushed souls and broken dreams) teenagers!

Tips for creating a nap room:

• Aim to place the dedicated room as far from the stairs as possible. Preferably on the third floor.

• Make separate rooms for various genders if possible.

• Use peer pressure from the nearly-deceased to effectively shut up any troublemakers. (But, like school policy and stuff might dictate teacher supervision)

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TedTalk. I would like to thank my sleep schedule for not existing, and as always, my love goes out to caffeine.