In this article, Tinyhood pediatric sleep expert Natalie Willes shares tips for how parents can help maintain their children's sleep routines while traveling, especially during the busy holiday season.
Travel and vacations with kids can bring so many fun moments and core memories, but every parent knows all of that exciting newness is not without challenges. When your baby or child has a hard time sleeping, it can affect everyone's mood. But by learning strategies for maintaining your child's sleep schedule while traveling, you can ensure that you'll also get some rest on your trip.
Read on for tips and strategies to create an environment that encourages sleep. Plus, learn how to manage time zone changes, and what you can do to help your child adjust before you even leave.
How can parents create a sleep-friendly environment in a hotel or new location?
If you are staying at a hotel, here are some tips for setting up your baby's sleep environment to be as similar as possible to home:
• Ask the hotel to provide a full-size or portable crib for your room, or bring your own travel crib.
• Use white noise. You can bring a portable-sized sound machine or use an app.
• Keep the room as dark as possible. Some families bring their own travel blackout curtains or use black trash bags and painters tape.
• If sharing a room with your baby, try to create a separate sleep space. Even visually separating yourself from your baby can make it easier for them to sleep. Remember, it can be difficult for your baby to see you. They may be frustrated that you are right there and not comforting them, and your presence can be stimulating, making it harder for them to relax and go to sleep.
If you are staying in another person's home, ask questions so you understand what the sleep situation will be like before you arrive. If renting a home, they may have a crib, sound machine, or other items you need, and all of my advice above applies. You may also want to bring a video monitor. This way you can always hear and see what baby is doing even if you are not within earshot of them.
And lastly, one pro tip — have your baby sleep in their travel crib at home for 3 days, starting at bedtime, before your trip. This will help them become used to sleeping in it and make it easier for them to fall asleep once traveling.
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What strategies do you recommend parents use to maintain a consistent routine for their child while traveling?
While it might be difficult for travel to not impact your baby's sleep at all, there are some ways you can help maintain their good sleep habits. The key thing is to try to pretend like you are at home as much as you possibly can. So keep your baby on a consistent sleep schedule, try and mimic their sleep environment, and most importantly: do not assist them in falling asleep.
As far as keeping baby on a sleep schedule, there are some important things to remember:
• There are no sleep rules when enroute to your destination. So between leaving your home and arriving at your destination, do whatever works, including helping your baby fall asleep. Feed your baby, walk them up and down the aisles of the plane, whatever you need to do to get them to go to sleep and stay asleep is fair game. And don't worry about their schedule. No matter how thrown off it becomes, you can always recover.
• As soon as you arrive at your destination, focus on helping your baby fall asleep unassisted for naps and bedtime. This is especially important for the first 24 hours of your trip.
• Treat sleep the same as you would at home. Even while you are on the road, if baby wakes at night, do just as you would at home - intervene only if something is wrong, otherwise allow your baby to fall back to sleep on their own. If at a hotel and baby is having a hard time falling asleep at bedtime, stepping out into the hallway while keeping the door ajar, or standing on the balcony can be helpful to allow baby to fall asleep on their own, as they won't sense you in the room.
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How should parents adjust their child's sleep schedule if they will be adapting to a new time zone during travel? Should they adjust anything before travel?
My advice is different depending on which direction you are heading.
Let's start with west to east. If traveling east, attempt to keep your baby on their west coast schedule for as long as possible. For example, if your California-based baby goes to bed at 7pm, when you arrive on the East coast, put them to bed around 10pm East Coast time. your baby will likely wake around 9 or 10 in the morning. Plan to continue putting them to bed around 9 or 10 pm until they naturally start to wake on their own closer to 7am East Coast time.
Why will they naturally make this shift? Babies and toddlers are extremely sensitive to sunlight, and the sunlight entering the room starting early in the morning is going to naturally cause them to wake and start their day earlier, despite the later bedtime. Once they begin waking around 7am, you can start putting them to bed at 7pm East Coast time. For most babies, this shift occurs within 3-5 days of arriving on the East Coast.
Now, let's talk about traveling east to west. If your child is going to bed at 7pm East Coast time, when they arrive on the West Coast, they will get tired early. Work as *hard* as you can to keep your child up until as close to 7pm West Coast time as possible. Keep them up as late as you can and do not start their day until 12 hours later. So if they fall asleep at 6pm West Coast time, they can start their day at 6am. For most babies, it will take 5-7 days for them to adjust to this new time zone.
A few important tips to help with these adjustments:
•First, I encourage no in-person checks after 4am as long as you're certain baby is healthy and safe. This is especially important when traveling across time zones. It helps your baby adjust faster and know when it's time to sleep.
• It takes slightly longer for kids to adjust when going east to west than the other way around.
• No matter which direction you're going, time naps based on whatever time your child starts their day. For example, if a toddler who usually wakes at 7am and naps at 10am and 2:30pm wakes at 8am instead, move their naps one hour later.
• And, if your time zone change exceeds 5 or 6 hours, you may want to sign up for the Tinyhood Sleep 101 Class, which details how to handle this.
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What should parents do if their child refuses to sleep in a new location?
A child may protest falling asleep more than normal at a new location. As long as you're committed to giving your child all the time they need to fall asleep on their own, you should find they're falling asleep more easily on their own within 24 hours of arriving at your destination.
Are there any best practices for when a child wakes up too early in a new location?
First and foremost, teach your child the skill of independent sleep. You can learn more about this in our Tinyhood Sleep 101 Class. It's vital for children to know how to fall asleep completely on their own; if babies can put themselves to sleep during the day, they are all the more likely to use that skill at 5am.
It's also helpful to keep your baby's room as dark as possible. Since baby is in a lighter sleep stage during the hours of 4-6am, any light that creeps into their room as the sun rises can cause them to wake. See my tips above on creating a sleep-friendly environment while traveling.
And lastly, I know this can be a challenge, but reduce or eliminate interactions with your baby during this time. This encourages them to put themselves back to sleep unassisted in the early mornings. My rule is no in-person checks between 4:00-6:30am, except, in case of emergency. If you have been going in and interacting with your baby during these early mornings while traveling, it may be time to revisit this rule. These interactions can actually cause your baby to start waking even earlier, as they think it is time to start their day.
About Natalie:
Natalie Willes is a Pediatric Sleep Consultant and Tinyhood Expert that has helped over 10,000 babies and toddlers using her sleep training method. Her methods are backed by thorough scientific data and years of professional experience. As a parent of two, Natalie knows that sleep is not a luxury, but a necessity to survive and thrive.
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