Photo by Co.kun
As mentioned by Rita Aouad, a psychiatrist and sleep specialist at Ohio State University, “a nap of about 20 minutes in the afternoon has a positive effect on attention, vigilance, mood, and alertness”. Notable established companies around the world such as Google, Nike, and Procter & Gamble provide facilities for employees to rejuvenate by taking short naps.
Co.kun, a team of six students from the Minor in Entrepreneurship (MiE) programme, approached NTU Library in late April 2018 to share their “business idea” – the HypnoPod. According to their proposal, the student-team led by Bill Pung expressed interest to set up a business initiative that offers power naps as a service. HypnoPod aims to “deploy unmanned [rest] pods at convenient locations while paying attention to privacy and security”. The proposal also included the possibility of building mobile applications to extend the capabilities of the rest pod like booking, payment, obtaining feedback, and alerts.
NTU Library provides seamless access to Information, Knowledge, and Library services which support learning, teaching, and research for the NTU community. It is the library’s vision to be a third space for students outside their classrooms, hall of residences, and homes to discover new ideas, find collaborators, share findings, and showcase their work. As a hub that supports student well-being and be a testbed for new ideas, concepts, innovation, and technologies, the library agreed to conduct a 3-month pilot study with the student-team behind the HypnoPod.
To determine the feasibility of having rest pods across all NTU libraries, one rest pod has been deployed at the Huxibit area located at Level 2 of Lee Wee Nam Library (LWNL). Students can book to use it at no charge and their experience, feedback, and thoughts will be collected for subsequent analysis and review. This pilot study will run from early September to the end of November 2018.
For enquiries, please contact Hedren Sum, who is the project lead for the rest pod via email at hedrensum@ntu.edu.sg.
FAQs
Libraries are traditionally a place of research and study, why would we want a rest pod inside the library?
As librarians we see many students resting and taking naps on different furniture and the floor and it doesn’t look very comfortable. While we have rest areas with bean bags and other more comfortable furniture, we wanted to test the feasibility of this alternative solution to use a rest pod for them to take power naps as it is found to have benefits through research. This pilot project also supports our vision to be a one stop centre for learning, studying, collaborating, relaxing, reflecting and a living test bed for the smart campus. We aspire for the spaces and facilities to become a third space for our users beyond the classroom and homes or halls of residence etc.
What is happening during the pilot study?
The usage of the pod, provided by Co.kun, will be monitored closely and users are encouraged to complete an online survey after their use on their experience. During the length of the pilot study, students can use them for free. The results of the study together with the observations and other feedback gathered will be analysed to derive the recommendations for the rest pod in the Library.
What are the deciding factors for a successful pilot study?
Some of the deciding factors include completeness and accuracy of the data collected, overall perceived experiences by the users using the pod, potential cost to managing the pod, security and safety concerns, and the availability of other potential avenues providing similar experiences.
