Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Have you ever called in sick for lack of sleep?

106 replies

MinnieMountain · 26/05/2022 05:44

I’m seriously considering it. I went to bed at my usual time of 10pm but was still awake at 12:30 and woke up at 4:30.

OP posts:
PaddingtonBearStareAgain · 26/05/2022 07:45

loafandleaf · 26/05/2022 07:32

Take it off, have yourself a day to catch up, definitely don't feel guilty about it.
It's your personal sick day, and Ben if you aren't technically "sick" you can use them how you see fit

Don't know anywhere where you get allicated sick days. There are sickness policies not days where you can use days for whatever you want.
Sick days aren't holiday days.

liveforsummer · 26/05/2022 07:46

No. This has been me for the last 10 days since the start of the horrendous cold I've had. Never once though about calling in even now let alone after one night.

loafandleaf · 26/05/2022 07:49

@PaddingtonBearStareAgain

Okay I worded it incorrectly, I meant as a day you take off when you're sick not an allocated "sick day".

It wouldn't be a holiday day if she's got a reason to be off, doesn't sound like OP does this very often if ever

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Sleep
IDidntKnowItWasAParty · 26/05/2022 07:49

If I did, I would never go to work.
If I were your employer I wouldnt be impressed.
Drink coffee.

SushiGo · 26/05/2022 07:50

I slept 12.00 to 3.30 ish them 6-7ish.

I'll go in and drink a lot of tea. Insomnia is partly stress related. Getting behind at work won't help.

justlonelystars · 26/05/2022 07:52

Only when I’d been in a&e all night and not got home until 5:30am
Have frequently had nights where I’ve had only 2 hours sleep (I need minimum 8 to function properly) but have just pushed through. Would save my sick days for genuine illness.

TheVillageBaker · 26/05/2022 07:53

No I wouldn't as the guilt would make my anxiety even worse!

Snowiscold · 26/05/2022 07:54

Four hours is fine, quite normal for me, so I wouldn’t take a sick day. However, if you develop a bad headache, dizziness etc, I think that would count as sickness, so in that case, yes, possibly.

FrancescaContini · 26/05/2022 07:54

Yes. Do it.

110APiccadilly · 26/05/2022 07:57

No, but I would if I needed to. I thought about doing it the other day (had a very bad night as I'd been told some pretty worrying news) but decided I'd still be ok to work in the end. But I was able to choose to do slightly less demanding stuff (mostly online training courses that had been at the bottom of my to-do list for a while!) If I'd really needed to concentrate on something important I might have made a student decision.

OneCup · 26/05/2022 07:58

I wouldn't have done much work the first few years after having DC!

110APiccadilly · 26/05/2022 07:58

110APiccadilly · 26/05/2022 07:57

No, but I would if I needed to. I thought about doing it the other day (had a very bad night as I'd been told some pretty worrying news) but decided I'd still be ok to work in the end. But I was able to choose to do slightly less demanding stuff (mostly online training courses that had been at the bottom of my to-do list for a while!) If I'd really needed to concentrate on something important I might have made a student decision.

A different decision, even!

Don'tknowwhichnametopick · 26/05/2022 08:05

I've had two hours and I'm in work.

Chesneyhawkes1 · 26/05/2022 08:06

Yes I have once. I'd woken up on the Wednesday morning at 8am, gone in that night for a night shift (tried to nap first but couldn't) went to bed 24 hours later on Thursday morning thinking I'd sleep like the dead.

Woke up 2.5 hours later. Couldn't sleep again so called in sick for Thursday night. Basically I didn't feel I could do my job safely on so little sleep.

Mellowyellow222 · 26/05/2022 08:07

Sick policy in my work is very strict.

being tired isn’t the same as being sick.

I would take an annual leave day in these circumstances

bumblingbovine49 · 26/05/2022 08:10

I spent almost 18 months sleeping that long at the most and often less when DS was a baby and toddler. Most nights I had less than 5 hours of sleep and never in a chunk of more than 3 hrs at a time and I was working for 6 months of that. So no I didn't stay home from work though I nearly always wanted to and it really affected my mental health .

That period of my life was pretty awful really but it did help me put one night of no sleep in perspective. Before DS I had never really not slept properly unless ill. Nowadays as I am older I sometimes have a bad nights sleep where only sleep
2-4 hours but I always go to work as I know it will be fine if it is a one off or even if only a night or two . Lack of sleep is a big problem but not if it is only a night or two..You will feel when you wake up but it will pass as you get up and get going.

PurpleDaisies · 26/05/2022 08:14

It depends. Do you feel well enough to go to work? I would make that decision after a hot shower and some breakfast.

Mirrorball2022 · 26/05/2022 08:15

I’d never be in work.. 4 hours is fine! I work 12/13 hour days on less when in an insomnia phase.

I know it can feel awful etc but I’m not sure a few hours sleep is enough to be off sick. Repeated consecutive days of no sleep… maybe.

Purplepeopleeaterz · 26/05/2022 08:15

No never, don't get me wrong there have been many occasions I've wanted too after months on end surviving on 3 - 4 hours sleep most nights, the thought of 10hr days working is overwhelming. Also peri menopause so no end in sight but I need my job, we do have a new menopause policy which might go some way to helping on days we really can't go on.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 26/05/2022 08:18

you were resting
i have taken time off, unpaid, when had been in A & E late
but you may not have slept but you were in bed.
however it is your call

BlueTitSmilingAtMe · 26/05/2022 08:26

manysummersago · 26/05/2022 07:29

Yes, last week although it was a culmination of no sleep for a year and a half! I was just so wiped out I rang in sick.

Lol. Presumably it was also because you were actually dead.

SlightlyGeordieJohn · 26/05/2022 08:33

MinnieMountain · 26/05/2022 05:44

I’m seriously considering it. I went to bed at my usual time of 10pm but was still awake at 12:30 and woke up at 4:30.

No. I’ve come home from a work’s night out at three in the morning before, and still been at my desk for my normal start time the next day at 06:40, and on a couple of notable occasions gone from a particularly late work night out straight into the office.

If I had a member of staff suffering from insomnia to the point that they could not function at work then I’d think a day off to catch up was a good idea, but one night getting four hours, that’s a very different matter.

Frlrlrubert · 26/05/2022 08:35

Sort of. But it was two nights of absolutely no sleep (went in after the first) because of gallstones.

On four hours I'd be tired but ok to work (and did for ages when DD was little).

It depends how rough you feel I guess. I'd probably go in and get started, come home if it's really unproductive.

purplesequins · 26/05/2022 08:35

yes once.
I spent the night in a&e with a relative.
it would have been unsave for me to drive the next day.

SlightlyGeordieJohn · 26/05/2022 08:37

loafandleaf · 26/05/2022 07:32

Take it off, have yourself a day to catch up, definitely don't feel guilty about it.
It's your personal sick day, and Ben if you aren't technically "sick" you can use them how you see fit

That’s really not how it’s supposed to work, sick days are for when you are sick.