Campus will be quiet as Bizzell Memorial Library and the Oklahoma Memorial Union host all-night study sessions for final exams.

As the Red Bull and coffee wear off, some will inevitably take sleep breaks on the plush couches or chairs in the library or in a booth next to Crossroads. Sleeping on the furniture is completely acceptable, though, library officials say.

Melissa Spears, drama and social work junior, works in the library and she said students often fall asleep there.

“There are really comfortable couches on every floor of the library and you just notice more and more they’re getting full,” Spears said.

Spears said unless someone is causing a disturbance while they are sleeping, library employees allow students to sleep.

“We understand that it’s finals week and you’re exhausted,” Spears said. “You need a nap sometimes.”

Debra Engel, associate dean of libraries, said the couches in the library are available for students to use as they wish.

“If students wish to sleep, that’s what students are using the furniture for,” Engel said. But she said students should be aware that their computers, books and bags may be unprotected while they sleep.

“We do ask students to be very careful with their belongings,” she said.

Tom Franklin, a respiratory therapist at the Oklahoma Sleep Institute, said sleeping on a couch or a chair is not unhealthy, but it is important for students to get a full night of sleep.

“[Students] should get eight hours of sleep to be at their full capacity,” Franklin said.

He said not getting enough sleep could be unhealthy for students because it does not allow their muscles to recuperate from the previous day and it hinders a student’s ability to concentrate.

“If they’re not getting their sleep, they’re not going to be as quick when taking an exam,” Franklin said.

He also said it is better for students to sleep at night as opposed to studying all-night and sleeping during the day.

“The body itself has an internal clock,” Franklin said. “It is geared not to be nocturnal.”

Students should not try to make up for the energy they would have gotten from sleeping with energy drinks, he said.

“All you’re doing is trying to supplement mother nature, and you do not know for the most part how these things will affect you,” Franklin said.