If you asked anyone who knows me to name one of my greatest pet peeves in life, more than half would tell you that being an insomniac is high on the list.
At the time of writing this, it’s 12:44 a.m. That’s not late for me; the usual time I get to bed is far more likely to be about 4 a.m. on my worst nights and maybe around 3 a.m. on most weekdays. It’s a cycle many of us know all too well: have too much fun on the weekends, come to class — or more likely skip — on Mondays out of sheer exhaustion and then try to get through the week while still staying up late for some reason.
Unfortunately for many enterprising Aggies like myself who love to read the lecture slides on their own time, sometimes you just have to come into class.
The particular reason you have to go to class is irrelevant; what matters is that you have to be in the ILCB, LAAH building, Zachry or wherever else your classes take you. And sometimes, you just need to take a nap to refresh yourself for the next thing you have to deal with, right?
That’s why I think Texas A&M’s administration should implement an innovation that would undoubtedly be popular among our student body: communal, bookable beds that are — ideally — located in every building classes are held on campus.
Think of all the possible uses. Need to have a pre-exam nap to get in the right headspace? Go online and book a free bed. Have a few hours between classes? Sleep for a bit to resuscitate your mental health after a sub-six-hour night.
Not only would the communal beds be popular with students, but they’d also boost exam grades. Studies show that sleep deficiencies correlate strongly with academic performance, accounting for an astounding ~25% of the variance in student academic outcomes. If we convinced even a fraction of the student body to begin using these beds — which I have no doubt they would — the average GPA at A&M would inevitably go up. Yet another great reason to have these facilities.
I think it’s clear to anybody with an ounce of sense that this would be an incredible idea; maybe even the best in the history of A&M’s administration.
However, I sense that some of you already have thought of an obvious objection to this proposal. Specifically, there’s a seeming inevitability that comes when you bring together beds and college students: sex.
If some freaky freshmen are going to contaminate these beds and ruin everyone else’s experience, why even build them?
Just hear me out: If the students are paying for an undergraduate education, they should be free to use all of the campus resources they need to in the ways they need to — hygiene concerns be damned.
Are you really going to tell some down-bad freshman they can’t use a free bed when one becomes available? They’re paying for it; they get to decide. I say let the people have what they want, and if they want to “contaminate” the beds, let them do it.
No need to thank me, President Welsh.
Kaleb Blizzard is a philosophy sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.
