Maintaining a Sleep Schedule With a Major Time Zone Change

I remember the first time I visited England with my husband back in 2017. We took an overnight flight to Iceland, which then routed us to our final destination, Manchester. We landed at 9am local time and we were exhausted. We tried as hard as we could to stay awake, but then crashed around 6pm and woke at midnight ready to start our day…oops! My body felt so messed up and confused.

After that first day of mix-up, we were back to normal on a good sleep/wake schedule.

Traveling with major time zones while bringing your kids in tow is a whole new level of tricky. You’re now in charge of someone while you’re also battling your own time-zone exhaustion.

Here are my best suggestions for maintaining your sleep schedule while dealing with major time-zone changes:

1. Limit Day-Time Sleep.
   One benefit of having kids, is that because their bodies are constantly growing, they naturally need more sleep than we do. This is why babies can nap numerous times throughout the day and still sleep all night long. However, I wouldn’t let them nap more than “normal.” Meaning… if they normally nap for 3 hours during the day, I would only let them nap for 3 hours while in the new destination. The reason why we limit daytime sleep is because our bodies have a natural amount of sleep they want to get in a 24-hour period. If they sleep too many of those hours during the day, it’s going to directly impact how much sleep they have at night.

2. Adopt The New Time Zone
   As soon as you get there, I want you to adopt the new time zone as your own. You and your child will be really sleepy the first day or two, but if you adopt the new schedule change right away, your body will quickly adapt and you’ll start enjoying your vacation. If your child is struggling, let them nap a little extra throughout the day, but limit naps to 2.5hrs each, and honour your child’s full wake window before bedtime.

3. Keep Your Regular Routines
   While on vacation, the most important thing to maintain is your child’s regular routines. Do their nap-time routine when available and definitely commit to doing their bedtime routine each night. This will help your child consolidate their days and nights quickly and they’ll be back on track in no time.

4. Maintain Consistency
   Being as consistent as possible during the major schedule change is crucial. If you normally wait 10 minutes to respond to a night waking at home, then do the same while out of town. It’s important for you to be consistent with your child so that they can be consistent with you. Keep those routines the same, keep their sleep environment as similar to home as possible, and enjoy great sleep while you’re away!

Most importantly, have a great vacation!! I love travelling as a family.

Once you’re home, if you need some concrete sleep help to get your child sleeping through the night, consider booking a discovery call with me to see if sleep training would be a good fit for your family.