REST Zones at UC Berkeley: The Marketing/Branding Journey / by Ashley Villanueva

A little about REST Zones

Relaxation Enhancing Study and Tranquility (REST) Zones seek to create healthy, comfortable spaces in which students (undergraduate and graduate) can sit, read, talk quietly with others, and take a break from the stressful pace of UC Berkeley life. Using a model of adaptive placemaking, REST Zones affordably integrate wellness promotion in existing campus buildings without the need for major structural or functional changes.

REST Zones can be found at the following locations (pics attached):
· ASUC Student Union – Eshleman Mediation Room
· Bechtel Library
· Tang Center
· Wurster Library
· Moffitt Library (Fall ‘16)
· Tolman Tech Lounge (coming soon)

Full list of places to nap on campus: tinyurl.com/berkeleynaps

Brought to UC Berkeley by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC),
University Health Services (UHS), and the Wellness Initiative Fee!

Why REST Zones? 

In a study conducted by the ACHA-NCHA II on the University of California, Berkeley campus in 2014:

  • 44.6% of students reported feeling tired, dragged out, or sleepy in three to five days of the last week in which the study was conducted.
  • 90% of students believed that sleepiness was a problem during daytime activities.
  • Only 9.7% of students reported getting enough sleep to feel rested in the morning in the previous 6+ days. Lack of sleep can negatively affect students’ mood, judgment, work performance, safety, and physical health.
  • According to the same ACHA-NCHA II study in the past 12 months:
    • 38.4% of students felt so depressed that it was difficult to function
    • 60.8% felt overwhelming anxiety
    • 8.9% seriously considered suicide
    • 3.1% attempted suicide
    • 94.2% experienced an average, higher than average, or tremendous amount of stress.

My role in moving this narrative forward

Melissa Hsu, ASUC Academic Affairs Vice President, and the Wellness Committee had been working on gathering support and funding since 2014 (maybe earlier). In October 2015, the UHS team was looped in for support. I was charged with coming up with the visual communications and marketing for the project. I began by proposing two directions:

Option 1: Rain City – The idea was to use the look and feel of a postage stamp as an analogy of taking a break and transporting yourself to a safe, calm, and restful place.

Option 2: NEXT – Using the wavy, topographic look paired with the color gradient to make the letters have that calming visual effect. Inspired by the NEXT: Corcoran Thesis Exhibition 2015 >>

I also proposed the following creative brief and color schemes:

After weeks of back and forth, we settled on:

Last, we decided it would be just as important to have sleep literacy, or education around why rest is important. Inspired by UC Davis’s sleep campaign, we created a brain character:

To complete our push for sleep, we invested some funds towards giveaways. Students can’t resist a good giveaway! Eye masks and ear plugs were the natural choice! Isn’t it so cool to see the REST logo on them!?

REST Zone Launch

The AAVP office rolled out the zones as soon as the furniture arrived. The official launch happened after the first four locations were established on Thursday, February 18, 2016. For the launch, we had students write on the REST Zone bags (filled with a postcard and giveaway) where their favorite places to nap were:

Their favorite places to sleep didn’t have to be a REST Zone. We really wanted students to think about where they would go if they needed to recharge, to bring awareness to taking care of their health in this way. We wanted to dispel the hype around all-nighter studying culture and the fact that “sleep debt” or trying to catch up on lost sleep is not effective and not a healthy practice.

Nap pods:

Social media wins

On social media, we received an overwhelmingly positive response from students:

A personal victory

As a Cal alumna, I feel a very close connection to this project. During my time as a student, I was perpetually caught in the “Am I good enough to go to this school?” I was always half-expecting a message from Admissions like: “Uhm, we admitted you on accident. You don’t even go here *Mean Girls reference*!!!” As a result, I constantly sacrificed my sleep and my health. I would pull all-nighters, and even considered taking prescription drugs, to keep up with my peers. By the end of my final year, I had severe eczema from the lack of sleep, poor diet, excessive drinking habits, and high stress.

It’s been argued that this is an obscene amount of money for zones that can only accommodate about 40 people at a time, but hey! It’s better than no official place on campus. And the furniture purchases were one-time only purchases (very little long term maintenance fee due to the adaptive placemaking). It shows that students and administrators alike identify this as an issue and are being proactive about it. This will especially help serve commuter students, students with chronic pain or illness, and student parents! It’s been an honor to be a part of this effort.

I love my campus! Go Bears!

Signed,
Ashley Villanueva
Proud Cal staff and alumna

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