At SIU, where we have a small greek system, only 4 of the 5 sororities, and 2 of the 9(I think 9) have houses on Greek Row. Some of the chapters(mine included) have sleeping dorms.
Cold air dorms- we call ours the sleeping dorm- are where everyone sleeps. Ours has like 40-50 bunk beds(so 80-100 actual beds). It kinda looks like an army barracks-type setup. They're great! Our houses are set up like dorms, so our rooms are study rooms where two girls study, get dressed, hang out, etc. It's too small to put beds in. We have two three-man rooms,also. But the sleeping dorm is nice because it helps eliminate roommate problems too. For instance, my roommie has early classes and goes to bed early and gets up early. I, on the other hand, don't have class til noon, so I stay up late and sleep in. Sleeping in the dorm eliminates us bothering each other. And we have storage space for things like luggage.
It's always silent, it's always dark, and yes, it's chilly, but most of us prefer it that way. Alarm clocks aren't allowed to go off until 9, but we have a wake-up duty system where sisters are assigned times(6:30-8:30) and weekdays to do wakeup duty. I was nervous about it when I first moved in, but now, I don't sleep well at all when I come home and alarm clocks just annoy me more than ever. I would much rather be woken up by one of my sisters than the beep beep of the clock.
Not all of the sororities have them. We have to use ours because our numbers are consistenly very high. But another sorority with lower numbers only makes one person live in a room so they can fit in a twin bed. We have too many members to do that.
My boyfriend's fraternity house(they're on Row) has one too. But they also have lofts in their study rooms. Most of the guys sleep in their rooms, because not all of their members live in-house, so most of the guys don't have to share rooms. They also use the wake-up duty system, but theirs is a little different.
Hope this answers some questions!!
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