Sleepless nights leave Winthrop student burnt out

Nick Varraso has energy.

When he has to finish a project for a class, he has no problem staying up until 3 or 4 a.m. to finish it. He’s also able to balance three jobs while taking a full load of classes at Winthrop University.

But Nick’s energy comes at the wrong times. When his friends and family are settling down and getting tired from a long day, Nick gets what he calls “a second wind.”

“It doesn’t matter what I’m doing or what’s going on, my body will re-energize at 11 p.m.,” Nick said. “I have to fall asleep before 10 p.m., otherwise I won’t get to sleep before my re-energizing.”

Nick can’t explain his bursts of energy, but he knows he doesn’t get enough sleep because of them. His sleeplessness has caused him to have a hectic schedule — he can only fall asleep between certain hours — and has added more stress to his life.

Nick isn’t alone in his sleep problems. A study in the College Student Journal shows that 76.6 percent of students at a large southeastern college reported occasional sleep problems, and 28 percent reported having insomnia.

Click here to listen to a podcast about insomnia.

Everyone has trouble sleeping occasionally, but people with insomnia have trouble sleeping for more than three weeks without improvement, said Dr. Donna Arand, president of the American Insomnia Association, in an interview on the Academy of Sleep Medicine Web site, sleepeducation.com. Their sleep problems also interfere with their ability to function during the day.

Studies have also shown a correlation between sleep problems and levels of stress.

Not getting enough sleep can increase a person’s stress, according to the article “The Waking Dead” in Newsweek. Studies have shown that people who sleep less have higher amounts of cortisol — a hormone that is related to stress, depression and cardiovascular disease — in their bodies. With a good night’s rest, the body regulates the levels of the hormone that can cause stress, according to the Newsweek article.

But another study shows that stress is the main factor in students’ poor sleep quality. The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that stress from school and life keeps 68 percent of students awake. Of those students, 20 percent couldn’t sleep at least once a week due to stress.

“Students underestimate the importance of sleep in their daily lives. They forgo sleep during periods of stress, not realizing that they are sabotaging their physical and mental health,” said Roxanne Prichard, a co-author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn.

Nick often doesn’t sleep at night when he has to work or when he has schoolwork because he can only fall asleep at certain times — before 10 p.m. or between 4 and 6 a.m.

On the nights Nick works at Ouzo’s Pizza, an Italian restaurant, he gets home around 10 or 10:30 p.m., eats dinner and is awake until 4 a.m. or later because his body is re-energized – like he just woke up from a nap.

“I actually feel this happening,” Nick said. “It’s like I’m plugged into a charger.”

Even if he does fall asleep before 10 p.m., he’s only able to sleep for four or five hours.

His freshman year at the University of South Carolina, Nick said he was able to cope with his sleeping problems because he had more free time during the day. Even though he couldn’t sleep normal hours during the night, he was able to go to classes, come back to his dorm and take a nap.

But when Nick transferred from USC to Winthrop, he had “double the stress,” he said. He was living with his family again and working more hours at Ouzo’s Pizza. Trying to balance school, work and family left no free time during his day for naps.

A study published in the Journal of Family Psychology shows that negative family events, coupled with academic stress, resulted in the highest levels of insomnia in students at Florida State University. Family stress had a more significant effect than stress among peers. The authors suggest this is because college students’ family relationships are deeper than their relationships with their peers.

During the 2007-2008 school year at Winthrop, the year he moved back to Rock Hill, Nick said he averaged two to three hours of sleep per night.

Out of the 120 hours in five days, Nick stayed awake 112 of those hours. At the time, he was working long hours at Ouzo’s Pizza cooking and delivering food.

“I’m able to function on very little sleep – and function efficiently,” he said, “but I’m not functioning optimally. I need about seven hours of sleep to function optimally.”

Nick sometimes sacrifices other things to make time for a nap during the day.

“If I have to drive that night (at work), I’ll force myself to sleep so I won’t be a detriment on the road.”

His girlfriend, Melanie Wilton, said Nick’s sleep habits make it difficult for them to spend time together when she comes home to Rock Hill from the University of South Carolina on the weekends.

“He’ll just stay up really late and not be productive, and then he’ll want to sleep until the afternoon,” Wilton said. “If I wake up in the morning I usually let him sleep. It normally cuts our time short.”

He always tells her that he’s tired, no matter how much sleep he gets, she said.

When they first started dating Melanie thought Nick only stayed up late because he had homework to do and papers to write. But, three months into their relationship, school was out, and she realized Nick always stays up late.

Nick has been dealing with his sleeplessness since the sixth grade, but has never been diagnosed with insomnia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD).

He thinks he has undiagnosed ADHD, which causes him to have an abundance of energy and not be able to fall asleep.

When he was younger, Nick told his parents he wanted to be tested for ADD, but the test was too timely and costly. Their health insurance didn’t cover a test for ADD. There was — and still is — a difference of opinion about his sleep habits in his family.

“(My parents) just viewed it as me not being able to calm down,” Nick said. “I viewed it as me not being able to calm down because I have too much energy that needs to be expelled.”

Pam Varraso, Nick’s mother, doesn’t think Nick needs to be tested for ADD or sleep disorders. If he scheduled his days more efficiently, he would have more time to sleep and eat, she said.

“He just gets wound up,” Pam said. “It’s all a part of the fact that he says he’s ADD. But he can still sit down and read a whole book cover-to-cover. I think it’s something he can conquer.”

Nick gets too stressed because he tries to juggle too many things and overworks himself, Pam said.

“He tries to help everyone,” she said. “He just doesn’t put himself first. He does have a big heart.”

Nick kept pushing his parents to get him tested, but eventually gave up.

“I just said, ‘It doesn’t matter what I have. I know what I have. I’ll just learn how to use it to my advantage,’” he said.

Mary McKemy, professor of psychology at Winthrop, said ADD or ADHD could cause insomnia, and the treatment of insomnia depends on the underlying problem causing it. Other disorders such as sleep apnea and depression can also cause insomnia, she said.

Nick’s sleep problems do seem to be caused by ADD or ADHD in some ways, McKemy said.

Although caffeine is a stimulant, Nick said drinking excessive amounts of caffeine helps him fall asleep.

“Caffeine, in large quantities, actually dulls my senses to the point that I can sleep,” he said.

McKemy said caffeine could possibly have a calming effect on people with ADD.

Normally, caffeine causes the body to pump more adrenaline and causes the heart to beat faster, she said. However, the drugs that are used to treat ADD are also stimulants, but they have a calming effect on users’ brains.

“So caffeine could calm that same part of the brain,” she said.

In some ways, Nick’s sleep problems don’t sound like those of a person with ADD, though, McKemy said.

“People with ADD or ADHD will continue until they drop, and then they will go to sleep,” she said.

Insomnia can also be passed on to family members through genetics, McKemy said.

Pam takes Ambien, a sleep medication, but her sleep problems are caused by another medical condition, she said. She gets nine to 10 hours of sleep a night. Nick’s father is the night owl, she said, and his grandmother was an insomniac.

Although Nick isn’t on any prescription medications, he has tried everything from Benadryl to Nyquil to make himself fall asleep. When he was younger those over-the-counter medications worked, but not now.

“It’s a very trying experience because there’s just not much I can do about it,” he said.

The only things that do help Nick fall asleep are being extremely physically exhausted or drinking a lot of caffeine.

Even then, it’s not a guarantee he’ll be able to go to sleep.

Nick has also tried meditation, but said he only feels more peaceful, not more tired. When he does meditate, his mind is still turning.

“A lot of times I find that I go on a spiritual journey,” he said. “I delve into my own mind. I can’t just sit still. I’m very uncomfortable sitting still.”

Nick has never been able to just sit still.

“I think a lot. My brain doesn’t shut down,” Nick said. “When I was younger I didn’t know how to control that. Then as I got older, it became a full-fledged piece of me.”

Pam said she thinks Nick’s sleep habits will be detrimental to him in the long run.

“He needs to learn the world’s not going to fall apart if he doesn’t come to the rescue,” she said. “He’s going to burn himself out.”