One of the best parts of being a college student is the ability to take random naps. The sleep schedule of a college student is, quite frankly, a bit strange compared to the rest of the world. If a college student goes to bed by 1 a.m., that is considered obscenely early. It’s also quite normal to find someone sleeping at 4 p.m., after class.

However, some people are starting to take the concept of napping a bit further. All over campus, posters announce the coming of a new phenomenon: The Collective Nap.

On April 5, a group of Washington University in St. Louis students will be camping out on a 60-foot blanket under the St. Louis Arch for a collective nap extravaganza. Interested students plan on meeting at the Big Bend MetroLink stop at 11:30 a.m. The nap itself is scheduled last three hours, from noon to 3 p.m. Students should keep in mind that the nap is “BYOP”-Bring Your Own Pillow. Also, wacky costumes, while not required, are encouraged.

Why set up a collective nap for what is normally a solitary activity?

Apparently napping on your own is not nearly restful enough. Or maybe, Washington University students have finally reached the point at which they are just too tired and too busy-even to take a nap.

Despite the many reasons students have for participating in a collective nap, the whole revolutionary idea is, according to Ilyse Magy, a senior, pretty straightforward.

“In theory it’s as simple as it sounds. I’ve constructed a 60-foot blanket and people can lie down and take a nap. It’s a sort of protest in the antithesis of a protest,” Magy said.

The collective nap-protest, according to the event’s tagline, protests both everything and nothing.

Magy, who has been throwing this idea around for quite a long time, said the collective nap is a sort of reframing for the ideas of Manifest Destiny and the antithesis for the Museum of Westward Expansion, located underneath the St. Louis Arch. A collective nap, according to Magy, is a chance to dream together underneath one of the American Dream’s greatest symbols.

“If people just lay down together and took a nap together things would be a little bit better. It’s absurd and it’s supposed to be [a] nice, absurd but really kind of necessary idea,” Magy said.

Magy, while admitting the bizarre nature of her event, also took pains to make it legitimate, as she assured those interested in participating that it does indeed have the required permit. There is no denying that Magy’s senior sculpture thesis is an enticing idea. Considering how desperately everyone is in need of both togetherness and a feel-good nap, hopefully 60 feet of blanket will be enough.

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