For college students, sleep schedules can resemble a newborn baby’s: sporadic and insufficient, with lots of crying. Sometimes, you just need to reset your own battery, and you don’t always have time to run back to your dorm to do it. Here are the best places on campus to strategically float off to dreamland and catch those hard-earned Z’s.
D.H. Hill Library
A favorite napping spot of mine is the D.H. Hill Library. There’s something about being surrounded by books and having hours of work to do that makes students doze off. Procrastination is a powerful sedative, and one I’ve experienced on the regular.
If you want a more comfortable sleeping experience, I recommend the blue couches on the second floor of the library. However, if you’re a shy public sleeper, I have found that slumping over one of the private desks in the bookstacks works equally well. Just make sure you bring an extra sweatshirt to double as a pillow.
Caldwell Lounge
If you like to people-watch, the massive windows in Caldwell Lounge are a great place to see and not be seen. It’s also home to numerous comfortable couches and chairs and, sometimes, live piano music. Working in that room makes you feel like Elle Woods studying to become a lawyer at Harvard University, even if you’re just responding to two other classmates’ forum posts and then taking a nap. After a hard day of discovering the meanings of life through the wonderful world of literature, it’s nice to kick back and snooze with students bustling around you.
Lecture halls
There is an art to sleeping in those hundred-person classes. You have to be careful not to slump over onto the person next to you, or lean your head too far back to avoid snoring. Unless you know the person next to you well, it can be quite awkward to wake up on a stranger’s shoulder. Although, if you play your cards right, it might be the start of a budding romance.
Talley Student Union
Talley is likely the most common place where students say they have slept on campus. With food right downstairs and numerous little corners to hide away in, the space feels comforting. The red benches built into the fourth floor are a favorite of mine, and every other floor provides a couch to snuggle up on as well.
If you ever find yourself embarrassed for napping in a public place, know you are one in a long, proud line of students who have done the same. Whether due to dedication or procrastination, it’s a right of passage to forgo the privilege of bed in order to complete an assignment. Either way, it’s part of the college experience, and you have to make up for it when and where you can. I myself have fallen asleep in Talley before, so don’t worry — you’re not alone. Just learn from me and make sure that wherever you choose to sleep, there will not be a tour group walking by.
