Sleep and Travel

Have a trip coming up and nervous about how to navigate sleep on the go with your child? 

I’ve got you covered! Traveling with littles can be tricky! But sometimes it is necessary, and sometimes you want to get away with your littles to create those lasting memories! I’ve heard it said that going away with kids is a “trip” and going away without kids is a “vacation,” and I think that is pretty spot on. It’s not often very relaxing or rejuvenating when you're traveling with your kids, but that does not mean it cannot be fun and worth it. So pack all the extra snacks, plan all the fun road trip games, and read on below for how to manage their sleep while you’re away. 

Time Zones

Are you traveling outside of your home time zone? If you’ve ever done this before…or ever lived through a daylight savings time change with a child…you know how much time change can throw a little one’s sleep off. But of course, I have some tricks for you…

If you are traveling outside of your home time zone for more than a week or maintaining your home time zone would be inconvenient, you can adjust bedtime by 15 minutes a day for a week before and after the trip to prepare them for the trip, and then adjust them back to home. When you arrive at your destination, make sure to spend as much time outside in the daylight as possible during wake times and make your child’s sleep environment plenty dark, and nice and cozy. This will help cue them in on when it is time to sleep. Adjusting by 15 minutes a day for a week may not get you all the way to the new time, depending on how many time zones you are crossing, but it will make the adjustment not so stark. 

If you are traveling to where it is maybe only one or two hours different from your home time zone, you can just adjust their schedule to match the new time zone as if it was your home time zone. So say your little one normally sleeps 7pm-7am, but the time where you are traveling is one hour later than home, just make bedtime 8pm, and try to keep baby in bed until 8am, and then adjust for naps accordingly as well. 

Managing The Schedule

Typically when you’re traveling, it is next to impossible to maintain your home schedule, and that is just fine. We want to strive for something similar to the home schedule so that we don’t throw your child into the total chaos that is an overtired toddler meltdown (if you know, you know), but it does not have to be perfect. So start by keeping their schedule as close as possible to their home schedule while still making sure you’re getting to do the activities and see the people and experience all that you came on this trip to experience, whether it be a necessary trip or one just for fun. Next, we’re going to look at overall sleep in a day and in a week. So if your child normally needs 15 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, strive to get them that much sleep, even if it means fitting it in where they aren’t normally getting it. Then look at their overall sleep in a week. If they miss a nap altogether one day and have a late bedtime, just try and make up those hours as much as possible the next day to avoid your child getting into too much of an overtired cycle.

Traveling with kids is all about striking a balance between not stressing out about maintaining a perfect schedule, (kids can be flexible!), and not getting them into an overtired cycle where they are too tired to enjoy the trip. It is tricky, but doable! 

Sleep Environment

One of the best things you can do for yourself to help traveling sleep go well for your child (and therefore you!) is to recreate their home sleep environment as much as possible. This means bringing along all of their normal sleep comforts such as their favorite lovey and sleep sack. Make sure you have a sound machine with you - there are a lot of great options for portable sound machines. Take measures to make sure the room they are in is completely dark, as well. I always appreciate the blackout shades that hotels have on their windows! This can be trickier if you’re staying with friends or renting a house, so come prepared. If there is anything else that is standard in your child’s sleep environment and is simple enough to transport (kids come with a lot of baggage, am I right??) then bring that along too! The more it feels like home to them, the easier of a time they will have sleeping in a new place. 

These are my top tips when it comes to sleep when traveling with kids. There are so many other components to making your trip as memorable as it can be, and there are so many wonderful travel bloggers out there that have tips on those components for you, so be sure and read up! Wherever you are headed, I hope you have a wonderful time and somehow sneak in at least a bit of relaxation for yourself!

~Becca