Is no sleep a reasonable excuse for calling in sick to work?

Oh and also, re: all the people saying they’ve had nights like that and gone into work fine, are beside the point. It depends what baseline you are starting from, your general health, your general sleep habits, metabolism etc. There’ve been times I haven’t slept and felt fine, and other times I’ve felt like you describe. Perhaps your system was already getting a bit run down. Perhaps you ARE coming down with something. Anyway, objectively, you are not well today, whatever the cause.

Most parents have been there. Take a day's leave or grin and bear it. You're not sick.

You may as well take early retirement so cos once you hit peri/meopause you will have many a sleepless night.

Why I am sick for the hours I am not in the office as I don't work Weekends

I am awake at 2am most days (thanks peri) but always go to work. So no, I don’t think you can be off because you didn’t sleep.

Not sleeping is as bad as being drunk. And having NO sleep is much worse than say, getting 2 hours of sleep. It’s absolutely a valid reason morally. As to whether your boss would accept it, not so sure. So you’re best off saying “I feel awful, really shaky and unwell so I’m going to have to take a day off sick”. Which is the truth after all. If you HAD slept, and you woke up feeling like that, you’d probably have no qualms about calling in sick, so what’s the difference? There’s a weird shame about tiredness/sleep in our society, as evidenced in some of the replies here, but they are not logical.

Me and virtually everyone I work with has had this with multiple children and still gone to work. It’s par for the course. It’s one day of work for gods sake.

No, go to work, drink coffee and then sleep tonight. Many people sleep poorly every night and still go to work. One tired day will be fine

You'll be fine op. Hop in the shower and have a good breakfast it's surprising how you can push through.

My working day starts at 5am so I get up at 3.30 I've done loads of shifts on no sleep or a short cat nap. I usually find around 10am I have a brainshift and feel pretty normal.

It really depends on what you do for work.

Would someone get injured or suffer irreparable negative consequences if you made a mistake at work? In which case, don't go if you haven't slept.

Anything else, go and power through. Not for your workplace, but just to make it easier on yourself - calling in sick when working only 2 days per week looks pretty bad.

I work 2 days a week now and often work on no sleep, as I can't sleep due to my health issues. Thankfully, I'm good enough at my job that I can do it on no sleep and no one will be at serious detriment if I make a small mistake due to tiredness.

No, sorry. If I rang in sick every time I had a night like that, I’d rarely be in work.

Personally if I were shaking with tiredness then yes I would phone in sick, however I’d make a different excuse.
DS is a very poor sleeper and at age 7 I thought it would be better by now. I slept 3 hours the night before his birthday party, I put on a happy face and trundled on but DH took him after so I could rest. If it was an 8 hour work day and I hadn’t slept at all then i would probably phone in sick.
I think people that haven’t experienced prolonged sleep deprivation can’t understand, sometimes I feel like it’s changed me as a person.

I mean you’re not going to feel great but unless dangerous I would suck it up. No idea on what assistance you have, do you have a partner? If you don’t then childcare always falling on you I would go in under these circumstances. Because there will probably be other times you absolutely cannot go in. I was lucky my children were almost never ill but DS did get chickenpox and was off nursery for a week once and we each took part of the week off.

Looks like my firm did this, think present one does too.
I was off on a Friday, Monday and Tuesday and in my record I had off five days as they counted the weekend too.

I had tonsillitis and had had antibiotics.

It isn’t worth trying to battle through illness sometimes.

I think it took me a couple of days to get a Doctors appointment, or I would have been off earlier than the Friday.

I agree.

The weekend would also be counted as sick leave days in any (shift work) workplace I know unless you notify them otherwise. Friday Saturday and Sunday, that’s 3 days.

But on Monday to Friday roles, the weekend only counts as sick leave if you take the Monday off too, then it’s 4 days.

That’s true.

What? Why?

Sorry if I have missed something but if your child is ill won’t you have to take the day off to look after them?

I have gone in after no sleep at all.several times (thanks peri menopause!). But office job. I told my colleagues I had had no sleep and they appreciated that I was struggling and there and were generous with the tea! I tried to do non complicated things! But it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

I’ve done it before. My boss is very understanding. I have really bad insomnia. I have a 45 minute drive and do a 12.5 hour day ( not every day) though so it’s a bit more manageable.

I had many sleepless nights with my mum who had dementia, and on one occasion was in A & E all night with her - but I never phoned in sick for that reason.

of course it won’t.

You had two and a half hours. You said so.
Regardless, you’re not sick, you’re tired.
You asked the question if it would be ok to call in sick. I gave my opinion it would not. Why are you asking if you just want everyone to agree with you that you should call in sick? If that’s what you want to do, then do it but no point in asking then arguing with people who say no.

Why?

I find Im usually fine the day after no sleep (Feel grim first thing then perk up)- until the following evening when I really crash. A second bad night and its a different story.