NTU now has napping pod for sleep-deprived students

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) announced via its Facebook page on Sunday, September 9, that a rest pod has been installed in the Lee Wee Nam Library. Students can now take 30-minute power naps in the pod.

In order to use the pod, students book slots via NTU library’s facilities booking system. While water is allowed in the pod, other drinks and food are not. Students must also take their shoes off before using the pod, and since it locks once it’s closed, they are also expected to keep their belongings with them inside the pod.

And, very importantly, only one person is allowed in the pod at a time. Students caught violating this will be penalized severely by NTU.

The pod will only be open during library hours, eliminating the possibility of overnight stays.

A group of NTU students who have entrepreneurship as their minor is behind the idea for the napping pod. They were given $15,000 in NTU grant funds to create a business of their own. 

Team leader Bill Pung Tuck Weng, a fourth-year renaissance engineering student, has said that responses from the students and university personnel have been very positive and that the pod has been fully booked. His group decided to address a common problem among university students: sleep deprivation.

The team is now monitoring feedback from the pod, with the possibility of it becoming a permanent part of the library, as well as more pods being installed.

Mr. Pung and his team are eager to see if their venture can eventually become a viable business for installing bopping pods for offices and schools.

Two years ago, Singapore Management University said that their new building on Stamford Road, slated to open in 2019, will include sleeping pods as well.

Experts, however, such as the director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke-NUS Medical School, Professor Michael Chee, have warned that naps should become a substitute for nighttime sleep.

Both students and alumni alike are delighted, and NTU’s facebook post about the pod has been shared more than 550 times.

But the comment that was reacted to the most was the one where a netizen asked if the sheets would be replaced after every student

Another netizen jokingly remarked that they had used the library for sleeping all along