Tired? Then have a nap — University of Akron adds nap pods for students

Ahead of his first day of classes at the University of Akron, Aaron Martin just couldn't seem to fall asleep Sunday night.

"I was nervous," he said. "I didn't know what to expect."

The freshman, studying vocal performance, tossed and turned until he finally fell asleep around 4 a.m. Then he was up at 8 for a full day of classes.

He slogged through the morning, but around 1 p.m. found a brief respite in Simmons Hall.

For about 10 minutes, Martin tucked himself away into one of the university's four new MetroNaps EnergyPods. They look a bit like someone affixed a giant football helmet to a dentist's chair. And they encourage the one thing that's generally discouraged in classes or in a lounge chair at the student union: taking a nap.

The seats of the pods tip back slightly, and then the user can choose to rotate the shell of the pod around their upper body to find relative darkness and quiet. Activating the pod's timer on the arm rest also starts relaxing music or a guided meditation. A soothing voice with an Australian accent — the company is from Australia — encourages users to close their eyes and take deep breaths. The pod has room for students to store their bags inside the pod with them while they get some shut-eye.

Even if students don't sleep, ZipAssist Director Alison Doehring said, the goal is to encourage students to take that moment for themselves.

ZipAssist is a hub for student support at the university.

"Even just that moment to breathe, do your deep breathing exercises and just take a moment, is how I think we’ll see students using it," Doehring said. "Maybe not everyone’s going to sleep but I think folks will enjoy just being able to enjoy having a semi-private opportunity to just breathe and relax."

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Survey data the last two years has shown Akron students dealing with an increase in anxiety and depression, Doehring said. Her office operates a "Refer a Zip" system across campus that allows students or staff to reach out for help for themselves or someone else who may have them worried. That's been an a successful intervention tool, Doehring said, and helps funnel people toward the counseling center. But her office has continued to work to find ways to help students address their mental health.

"We kept asking ourselves what else we could be doing, and the nap pods came on that list as maybe an option," she said. "We started asking students what were their thoughts, how would they use them, where should we put them."

The pods were purchased with federal COVID relief dollars, allocated through the Ohio Department of Education with the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds to support behavioral health on Ohio college and university campuses.

The university received $370,000 from the GEER grant and spent $52,000 of it on all four nap pods.

Two are located in Simmons, one in the library and one in the recreation center. So far, Doehring said, they have been popular, but word is still spreading and students are still discovering them and learning how to use them. The pods will also collect data on their usage and students can scan a QR code to take a brief survey after using them.

Aaron Martin said he heard about the pods from other students and was glad to have found them on his first day on campus.

"It was calming," Martin said. "I like the music."

Before he figured out how to close the shell, he improvised by pulling up his red hoodie over his head and covering his eyes. He said he was glad to see the university addressing students' needs.

"If people are stressed out, they usually can't sleep," he said.

Juanita Martin, the executive director for the Counseling and Testing Center and Office of Accessibility, said the university's counseling center usually has a waitlist for services by the middle of the semester. That demand has increased in the wake of the pandemic.

"We can see that students are checking a lot of the boxes in terms of the impact of COVID on their mental health," Martin said.

Students often struggle with managing stress, she said, and often end up ruminating and anxious. The pods, she said, as much as catching up on sleep, will help students learn coping skills.

"It's actually telling a student, stop a minute and take care of yourself," she said.

Aaron Martin said he knows word will spread and more students will be helped with the pods, but he might not be rushing to tell everyone right away.

"I want to keep this all for myself," he said.

Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: University of Akron adds nap pods to address students' mental health