Response Essay: To Sleep Or Not To Sleep

1669 Words4 Pages

To Sleep or not to Sleep

‘Pull up a leather couch and cram for the midterms’ reads the headline for a article written by Sarah Heim for ‘The Stanford Daily’ on October 5, 1999. The article describes the Bender Room, one of the study rooms that is frequented by Stanford students. Heim quotes students who describe the room as: “ More like a livingroom than a library.” One students said, “ You can always take a break and look outside at the view, and I like the leather couches.” Hmm, is this a study area or a lounge? I found this article a little confusing at first. Couches? View? I wonder if students like such rooms because they are good for study or distraction? Aren’t we supposed to avoid the temptations that are hazardous to our studies?

I begin each day by taking a seat in a wooden chair near the doors of the room at St. Paul’s Newman Center called “the lounge.” I have spent a fair amount of time studying at the Newman Center and I have seen numerous others students studying and lounging in this room, but before this year it was seldom a spot that seemed conducive for studying. In the center of the west wall there is a clock. The clock makes a buzzing sound that seems to fill the …show more content…

Michael obviously found the couches to be an opportune chance to catch up on lost sleep, but not for studying. Leo saw them as a place to be comfortable when studying, but useful for sneaking in a quick nap. Brad, on the other hand, avoided the couches and with that the “doze factor”-or so I thought. When I walked into the room October 12 at a quarter past three, Brad had his chair pushed back and his head resting on the table. Books were scattered all over the table top and one was propped up as though he had been trying to read it with his head resting on his arms. Next to his right arm there was a can of Mountain Dew. I spoke in a loud, jesting tone: “Uh-Oh,

Open Document