Traveling with kids? How to keep your sleep routine on track

Why?

While it can be challenging to maintain your child’s normal schedule and sleep routines while you travel, there are certainly some things you can do to help preserve your progress and minimize setbacks. 

How?

Maintaining routines

Here are some things to consider regarding your routines while traveling:

• It’s understandable that a child may feel apprehensive about falling asleep in an unfamiliar setting. Bringing a few key items from home (such as their favorite stuffed animal and books) can help children feel more secure.

• Packing travel blackout blinds and a white noise player can help your child sleep easier when it’s noisy and/or bright outside their sleep space.

• It’s normal for children to want more comfort falling to sleep and/or back to sleep when they’re in a new location. We recommend giving them lots of extra hugs if needed, but encourage them to fall asleep in the same way as they do at home. Of course, this may lead to crying and many parents want to keep that to a minimum while at a hotel or in family member’s home. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes while on vacation for everyone to get some sleep, even if that means relaxing your sleep “rules.” 

• Try not to get discouraged if you end up back-sliding a bit on your progress. You’ll resume your routines when you return home. It may take a few days of full consistency in order to improve sleep once again and you may need to re-use the methods in your sleep plan to get back to independent sleeping. It’s common for children to protest the return to their sleep “rules” and routines, initially, if they’ve been receiving more help at bedtime on vacation. Stick with it!

Schedules and time zones

Here are some things to consider regarding your child’s schedule when traveling:

• Overtired children often have a harder time falling asleep on their own and staying asleep. Many parents find it helpful to balance some late nights with some “early” nights to minimize overtiredness.