"I'm tired. I didn't get ANY sleep last night." This is a common remark that you can hear in the hallways, the classrooms, on the phone, and any space that students occupy. Complaining seems to be the Olympic sport of high school, and people are constantly battling for the gold. Unfortunately, this contest isn't held once every four years, but every day and everywhere.

Most of us are in extracurriculars that consume the better part of our days. Add to that the mounds of homework that teachers seem to feel are necessary, and there is not much time left in the day. Most Uni students get very little sleep, a fact which is not a secret (or at least not a well-kept one).

According to a poll done by the Gargoyle earlier this year, only 33 percent of people get seven or more hours of sleep each night. Twenty-six percent of that is people who get between seven and eight hours. The point is, falling asleep in class is not an unfamiliar concept for most people, especially during sports season or tech week of a play.

No one is denying the general haze of sleep-deprivation that hangs around Uni students. The point is, have we taken it too far? No one really wants to hear people constantly battle it out for who has the worst life right now. Yet you walk into a class, and inevitably someone says, "I am sooo tired; I went to bed at 2 in the morning" — working on a paper they should have started weeks ago.

During play season, however, techies and drama queens (or kings) alike officially get to win every argument. Their "I stayed at school until midnight, and then I had to do my homework" will trump any sports or extracurricular card you can play. Unless you like staying up insanely late for no reason, or you stayed up until 4 in the morning and then had to get up at 5 in the morning for, say, swim practice, you don't even have a chance at competing.

It's a sad trend, but this fight for sympathy has gone on since elementary school. Back in the olden days, we used to have debates about who had the worst TV to watch. People with satellite didn't even contribute unless it was to gloat. "Cable people" answered and shrugged when people either agreed or sighed wistfully. "Local network people" were the unlucky few who everyone else felt sympathy for. But only the people who could do nothing but watch movies took home the gold. All the rest were sympathetic, while secretly feeling comforted.

Annoying as complaining is, could that be the secret reason that people do it all the time? Besides to aggravate people for a sympathetic ear, it's a bit comforting to know that you fall asleep in class less than at least one other person, your quiz grade wasn't the lowest, and the teacher likes you better than someone else. So to all the complainers: thank you?