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

[Catermellor]

Is ‘I haven’t slept at all’ a reasonable excuse for not going to work?

I really haven’t. I might have had two hours maybe 9-11 and then maybe dozed for half an hour between 4 and 430’but that’s it and that’s a generous guess. I feel all shaky and horrible and I just want to catch up on some sleep.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

You need to tell us your job OP, which you are being cagey about.

I work in healthcare and work Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I wake Tuesday about 7am, do my day, go to work Tuesday night (am obviously up all night) get home and do the school run, get an on and off 3 hours sleep and then back to the school run and back to work. In school holidays I get barely a sofa nap between waking up Tuesday and going to bed Thursday night. Do I feel grim? Absolutely! Do I have a choice? Nope. Would I call in sick because I am tired? Absolutely not.

If you don’t want to go to work, don’t. You are an adult I assume and can make your own decisions without strangers on the internet?

Otherwise, like others have said, shower, hydrate, breakfast and coffee. Hydration and snacks are what get me through.

Well, if your attendance is good overall, then you're not going to get sacked for this. Your boss may well perceive you as a bit flaky and not very committed, but if you're not bothered by that, then crack on.

I'm not quite sure why you're being arsey with the poster who said that you slept badly though - you're insisting that you didn't sleep, but according to your OP, you got a couple of hours at the beginning of the night and dozed for another half hour later on, so "slept badly" is actually the more accurate description.

Can you go in this morning, make it clear you’re not feeling well and ask to leave after lunchtime? They can see you’ve made an effort but you get to finish early and get an afternoon sleep in.

That's tribunal level territory. You should call ACAS. One period, yes, but not 5 sick days.

Yanbu. Annual leave or sick. Expecially if you drive.

I caused a data protection breach when I worked on almost no sleep recently. I should have stuck to doing very little that day. I WFH so I don't have to drive. Without fail I always make mistakes on no sleep days (and they're usually contained to me to unpick the next day) but that was my best so far.

No, that's how I get if I haven't slept/just dozed all night. And it absolutely can be dangerous to travel that condition.

I find this had to believe or legal.

I'd say it depends on the job- shop assistant yabu, air traffic controller yanbu!

I have just twigged what the poster means. It is to do with self certification as weekends count in the 7 days so technically on the form it is 3 days.

It’s a straightforward issue really - are you fit to work?

Last weekend I was in A&E until 3.30am with my dd. I got into bed at 4am. My alarm went off at 6am and I got up and worked a 12.5hr shift.
I was fine until about 6pm when I started to feel really knackered!!
however, when questioned about it all I just thought meh. I’ll be tired for sure but tiredness doesn’t kill (after just one night of crap sleep anyway). Just suck it up and get on with it.
So I did 🤷‍♀️
can you not do the same?

LOL really? Just have an early night tonight. This is pretty pathetic unless you're ill.