By Pen Fang
TikTok trends are no stranger to the school environment. From calling teachers by their first name to the borderline theft and vandalism of “devious licks,” students have often brought online exploits to the offline world.
Now, another trend has swept through the East hallways. You don’t have to worry about a missing soap dispenser or sink — this time, the trend is called “#speednapping.” On TikTok, the tag is flooded with thousands of users — many of which are high school students (though there are a smattering of university students) — filming themselves in class or during a study hall in a race to fall asleep. The video format is almost formulaic: usually, the person recording the video will make some sort of starting call, indicate a quick countdown, and the race is on. Who will fall asleep the fastest?
The person recording the video usually acts as a moderator of sorts, which has led to all sorts of somewhat bizarre situations occurring to “prove the nap.” One video, which sits at a hefty 1.5 million views, shows a race between three people in a group project. At the end, when one person has fallen asleep, the moderator tries a variety of gimmicks to wake them up, from shaking to iPhone alarms to tickling and even dumping a bottle of water on their head. The bell rings and the video cuts before the person awakens, but in a follow-up video posted to the moderator’s account, the person elaborates that they woke up halfway through the next period soaking wet with no recollection of anything. They say the teacher “let [them] sleep” because “it looked like [they] needed it.”
In another video, the moderator can be seen stealing the student’s lunch, which has led to backlash.
At East alone, this phenomenon can be observed across a variety of classes ranging all grades. Videos and photos tend to peak around Friday during Independent Reading Day, where the passive nature of the activity allows for students to more easily disguise their slumbered slumping. The English wing also contains a leaderboard of sorts. On the whiteboard of Room 214 (a room commonly used by Mr. Huber and Mrs. Lumb), students have compiled an increasing list of decreasingly short times, attached to pseudonyms, some of which are linked to certain social media accounts.
“I mean, it’s really weird,” Armita Rohani, a junior, said. “Like, I just kind of fell asleep in AP Lang by accident. And I ended up losing to Mr. Huber!”
At East, students have elevated the trend by setting up races in seemingly unlikely classes, with Chorale, Symphonic Orchestra, and Gym being primary targets.
“I mean, you look up and the violas are just sleeping!” Armita continued while laughing. “Sometimes it’s really funny, because they keep playing.”
ESN Editors Eileen Wang, Pen Fang, and Emma Wu recalled an incident in their AP Macroeconomics class, which is taught by Mr. Wright.
“I mean, Pen doesn’t sit near us,” Emma described, “but Eileen, Sophie, James, and I decided to try it. James was particularly on board, to be honest. And Pen somehow caught on and they moderated.”
“And we all kind of- picked different ways to try and sleep discreetly. Well, I just put my head down. Usual macro procedure.”
“I look up to try and figure out how I want to sneak my nap,” Sophie Wang bemoaned, “and I see Emma just absolutely GONE!”
“Emma has the most wins in macro,” Eileen said. “We want to start a leaderboard on Mr. Wright’s whiteboard, but we haven’t gotten around to ask because we’re so busy, um. Sleepi- I mean slee..kly studying.”
“Emma’s nap proof was hilarious,” Pen laughed. “I mean, Mr. Wright was handing out the new notes packet and he just, like, looked at her slumped over. And set the notes by her head and left.”
“He’s a real one for that.”
