by Rocio Hernandez

Community Health Science major Lauren Acevedo had a long week of papers and exams during her sophomore year of college. While on campus, Acevedo said she desperately needed to find a place where she could get some good sleep in between classes. She talked to student Kenneth Aguilar and he suggested that she sleep in her car or at the library like most students do, but she said this wasn’t enough for her.

“I wanted a place where I could actually lie down and that’s when the idea came to my mind,” Acevedo said.

In January, Acevedo and Aguilar officially started their own company, Modern Serenity. The company is looking to bring 14 to 16 “peace pods,” capsule-like devices with a bed inside, to campus to provide University of Nevada, Reno students with a comfortable and safe place for students to catch up on their rest.

“A lot of students have breaks between classes, and they should be able to get a restful and meaningful sleep versus having to be in the library, hugging their backpack, worried about their things getting stolen,” Acevedo said.

The pods, manufactured in London, are the same models that were used during the 2012 Olympics.

“The great thing about them is, since they are rounded, they don’t make you feel claustrophobic at all,” Acevedo said. “You can fully sit up in my pods.”

Photos provided by Lauren Acevedo If they are approved, Modern Serenity’s peace pods will be located on the first floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union where the Kaplan Test Prep was previously located. Modern Serenity is waiting until a majority of undergraduate students approve of the peace pods before installing them. Students can show their approval or disapproval through surveys available online at Modern-serenity.com.


Photos provided by Lauren Acevedo
If they are approved, Modern Serenity’s peace pods will be located on the first floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union where the Kaplan Test Prep was previously located. Modern Serenity is waiting until a majority of undergraduate students approve of the peace pods before installing them. Students can show their approval or disapproval through surveys available online at Modern-serenity.com.

The final price is yet to be set, but Modern Serenity estimates that it will be a fee of $65 per person per semester. There will also be a walk-in fee for time intervals of 30, 60, and 120 minutes. Modern Serenity said they want to base this fee around the average price of a small or medium cup of coffee.

“We are shooting for as low as we can for students, because we know the struggle and how difficult it is to pay for books and the cost in general for classes to be at the university,” Acevedo said.

The company has already presented the idea to Associated Vice President Gerald Marczynski and ASUN. All have agreed that the best location for the pods would be on the first floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union, but before they can make anything official, the company was assigned to conduct a survey to find if students were interested in the idea and to see how much the students would be willing to pay for the service.

“I think the idea is kind of interesting, whether or not there is going to be enough interest for them to make a go of it will probably be the issue because they obviously don’t want to lose money, so they have to make sure that they get enough membership or pay-per-use to make it worthwhile,” Marczynski said.

As of right now, about 700 people out of 19,000 undergraduates have completed the survey, according to Acevedo. They are aiming for at least 3,000 responses with the majority in favor of the pods.

UNR senior Cody McDonald has taken the survey and believes this is something that he and other students would benefit from.

“I think that sleeping pods should be offered to the university,” McDonald said. In an environment that’s typically associated with high stress, sleep pods would offer students a place of respite.”

Sophomore Jenna Sims said that even though it is a revolutionary idea, she would rather continue sleeping in a quiet area of campus for free.

“If they were available, I might try it once for $5, but I don’t think I would be a regular customer,” Sims said. “I also feel like a semester membership for $50 is reasonable, but students already pay so much for their Lombardi passes, parking passes, etc.”

Before working for Modern Serenity, Aguilar worked two part-time jobs and took about eight to 12 credits at the same time. Aguilar knows from first-hand experience the toll that lack of sleep can take on you. He wants to reach out to students who feel just as tired as he does.

“I just want to stress the importance of sleep and the lack of,” Aguilar said. “It’s something that we are missing, and students aren’t realizing that it’s affecting them. We are here to help, and we want all the students to feel a better state of mind.”

Rocio Hernandez can be reached at rhernandezzarate@sagebrush. unr.edu