NTU students get new rest pod

Given six months to create their own business venture, a team of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students taking entrepreneurship as a minor decided a nap was needed.

It turns out that besides scoring As and Bs, students there really want the Zs.

Led by 24-year-old Bill Pung Tuck Weng, the intrepid team tapped $15,000 in NTU grants to secure a new rest pod which has been sitting in the Lee Wee Nam Library since Aug 29.

He declined to say how much the pod cost.

Mr Pung told The Straits Times that the response from both the school's administration and students has been "looking really positive".

The pod is usually fully booked and he believes it has "met customer expectations".

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There are strict rules though.

Couples looking to get cosy may be disappointed - not more than one person is allowed inside the pod.

Those caught violating this rule will be dealt with severely by the school administration.

Rest sessions are capped at a maximum of 30 minutes per session, and aside from water, eating and drinking are strictly prohibited in the pod to ensure its cleanliness.

Mr Pung, a fourth-year renaissance engineering student, said his team came up with the idea to solve a problem that many students in Singapore face: a lack of sleep.

They will monitor how users respond to the pod over the next one to two months and work with the library to see if it can become a permanent fixture.

At the end of the study, the team will meet the school administration to discuss whether more pods can be installed on NTU's campus, and whether the pod will can become a permanent feature there.

While students may welcome the opportunity for rest, experts have cautioned against using sleep pods and nap rooms as a replacement for quality night-time sleep.

Professor Michael Chee, director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke-NUS Medical School, said in an earlier ST report that sleeping pods fill a need, but the underlying need to prioritise sleep in life needs to be addressed.