Bring Nap Clubs to RHHS

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Monica Sanchez, Writer

Do you think Heritage should have a nap club?

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High schools around the nation are founding nap clubs for their students. They acknowledge the fact that most teenagers don’t get enough sleep; they have found a solution for all those students who come late to school because they slept in and those who doze off during class.

In these nap clubs, students meet and rest quietly; they are held in a quiet room, and no technology or speaking is allowed. Some centers offer their students everything from comfortable sofas to free tea to sleep health consultations.

Some may see these activities as a form of coddling their students, but participating schools know that a brief period of rest can be of great help during an otherwise jam-packed school day. Many high school students do not get sufficient sleep; this is associated with several health risks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among these are drinking alcohol, smoking, drug use, and poor academic performance.

Raj Dasgupta, a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, points to studies that demonstrate that there are benefits of 15 to 20-minute naps, nap rooms, and nap pods.

Janet Feron, an education administrator and consultant, created a program at Boston Community Leadership Academy in which certain high school students are required to use an entire period of each day to rest and de-stress. Ms. Feron says, “a lot of our kids are falling asleep in their academic classes, so we needed to make a plan for them to stay awake and meet their goals.”

In some schools, students that have good grades are given the chance of having a first period free every week so that they can sleep.

I am a strong advocate for having napping in this school; even 20 minutes a day would be enough.