Jet lag for adults and children can be really hard and it’s also where sleep associations start to creep in. In order to help our children through this, the key for us as parents is to prevent them getting overtired and help them to regulate their body’s natural circadian rhythm again.
Top Tips:
- Melatonin is your best friend! As soon as you get to your new time zone get as much outside time in sun light as possible. This helps your child’s body naturally produce melatonin at the right time of day.
- Get on to the new time zone you are in right away. What does this mean? If you arrive in the daytime try and keep them on their normal daytime age appropriate schedule. ie if your baby/toddler normally naps for 2 hours let then sleep for 2.5 hours MAX then wake them up. If you arrive at night try to give your child an age appropriate awake window before you put them to bed to make sure they have enough sleep pressure to get to sleep
Early Wake ups
Depending on your direction of travel and difference in time zones you make get early morning wake ups. This is common when you travel to Europe and the US. If your child wakes up early in the new time zone, and won’t go back to sleep, just go with it and start the day. The early wake ups should push back to normal time over 2-4 days.
Night time wake ups
If your child wakes up in the night keep everything as dark as possible and explain that it’s still nighttime. If they are wide awake there are 2 main factor to consider:
- Do they have enough sleep pressure to get back to sleep?
- Could they be hungry?
If either of these factor are at play get them up, do some quiet activities and give them something to eat and a drink. Don’t be tempted to keep them awake for hours. Try and get them back to bed after about 1 hour. They may stay awake for another hour or more but offer lots of reassurance and reinforce that it is still night time.
Waking your child
Depending on your direction of travel you may need to wake your children up in the morning. This can be very common when you are coming back to singapore. If your child is not awake by 8am, wake them up. This will anchor their day and help them to reset their circadian rhythm.
Sleep associations
As tired as you may be don’t be tempted to change the way sleep normally occurs just because of jet lag. It may take children longer to go to sleep when they have jet lag and they may need some more reassurance and support. This is fine. However, if you don’t normally rock to sleep, feed to sleep or co sleep don’t do it just because you are travelling!
Hope this helps. Do reach out if you need any help or advice navigating jet lag in your children.
Sleep well!
