Security Blanket

This is how Nathaniel sleeps most of the time. Sleep being relative. It's more of 'the time I spend in my room under my covers, waiting for something bad to happen' than really sleep. If he's in his room and there's a loud noise, he will most likely dive under the covers and try to hide under the blankets like this, covering himself up to protect himself. He doesn't sleep at home, it's too nerve wracking. It's not that he doesn't want to, he just can't fall asleep. So he ends up usually falling asleep at school, since it's one of the only places he's safe from the attacks, although psychological attacks still happen. If he does manage to fall asleep, any loud noise will result in him waking up, terrified. Sometimes he doesn't really sleep for weeks. He falls asleep, but he can only sleep for about an hour or two. This means occasionally he ends up falling asleep where he's standing. I doubt that this would change if Scarlett was gone, at this point anyway. Not everyone quite realizes just how tired he is, no one asks and he never really talks about it. If his days are more stressful (piled on top of the normal), he doesn't even get the hour or two asleep he normally gets. On those days, eventually he will pass out from exhaustion and sleep wherever he is when said passing out occurs Not even loud noises will wake him up when he's passed out, and he wakes back up 8-12 hours later. His sleep schedule is appalling, but he's gotten so used to it that he can't really switch back to a normal sleeping pattern, even if the attacks stopped. He barely even thinks about how he sleeps; his sleeping is based mostly on when he's attacked, so he doesn't really know just how bad his insomnia is, because it's just how he's gotten by for so long that he barely recognizes that it's is a problem worth adressing. Nathaniel's problems may seem only related to his mental health (and the physical abuse),  but his insomnia is a very big problem that isn't immediately obvious. You wouldn't notice it unless you were around him for a long period of time. He doesn't complain about the sleep, and he doesn't seem tired most of the time, what with his easily panicked high strung manner,so it doesn't become obvious until he's reached the passing out stage of tiredness. The destructive cycle of his sleep deprivation is permanent, at least for a long time. It would take a lot of help by people who actually care about him. I'm not sure how they would realize how deep the sleeping problem was, although it seemed bad, the true severity of it would become apparent if he passes out again in front of them. He doesn't just find a place to sleep on, he just faints while doing whatever he was doing. He could even be talking, but his body would give out on him and he'd be out like a light... A light that only went out because it burned itself out. 
(The irony of the fact that I'm posting this at 12:20 AM has not escaped me)