As a commuter student, it’s really hard to find places to rest. In the morning, I have to wake up two hours before class and travel 30 minutes to make it on time for class. I don’t have the luxury of simply walking back to my dorm after a class because if I wanted to go home, I’d have to travel 30 minutes again. I also have multiple classes a day so traveling back and forth would be unwise and a waste of time.
This routine causes me to have a lot of in-between space between my classes. What do I do and where do I go when I have that gap? Well…it’s pretty difficult to say. Sometimes, I’ll book a study room in the library for a couple of hours or I’ll sit in the Commons. Other times, I’ll sit in the FILL Room on the 5th floor of Harris Hall. However, sometimes those options aren’t feasible. The study rooms tend to get filled up so quickly that I have to book them a day in advance. The Commons also tends to be loud so doing homework during my gap time isn’t the best option there. The FILL Room also tends to fill up sometimes too!
The TLDR is basically the first sentence I wrote in this article: It’s SO hard to find a place to hunker down as a commuter. It’s also really hard to find a place to sleep too! Commuter students have it rough and there isn’t a safe place for us to get some sleep. That is…there wasn’t a place for us to sleep until last week!
On November 12, VCU had recently unveiled new nap pods in several buildings on campus. These nap pods were originally an idea created by Focused Inquiry student Anirudh Mepperla as a way to improve sleep wellness among students on campus. This VCU News article talks all about the conception of the project and the plan of action to bring Mepperla’s idea to life.
I know what you’re probably thinking, “Nap Pods? We have Nap Pods now?” I reacted the same way when I heard about these nap pods last Tuesday! Most of my friends didn’t know we had nap pods either when I asked them about it!
Since I had a bit of time to kill and a bit of sleep to catch up on…I decided to give one a quick visit and share my thoughts in this article!
There’s four nap pods on campus. There’s one in the Commons and three on the fifth floor of Harris Hall. I decided to nap in one of the pods on the fifth floor of Harris floor. The one I went into was shaped like a cylinder and opened through the side. I went to the front desk at the Fill and was checked in for an hour nap session.
Once I checked in, I learned that they make you wipe down the beds and pillow before and after use. I took off my shoes once I did that and crawled right in…shutting the door from the rest of the world.
Being in the cylinder shaped nap pod was very peaceful for me! It felt like I was in a coffin. (in a good way though!) I wasn’t interrupted and the bed area was actually pretty soft to sleep on! I finally got to get some good sleep on campus after a few days of non-stop homework.
My overall thoughts? If you are a commuter and need a place to rest, try your luck at a nap pod! I know that I’ll be visiting again soon!