5 Ways to Cope with Sleep Debt While Traveling With Kids

One of the more challenging aspects of traveling (or… life?) with children has been dealing with inevitable sleep debt. I probably should be sleeping right now.

Before having kids I viewed jet lag as an inconvenient part of travel— temporary disorder that’s part of the exciting nature of it. But now that I’m dealing with my own lost sleep as well as my children’s it can be more of a burden.

Of course my husband and I are no strangers to lost sleep these days. He’s completing his fifth year of medical residency (which means five years of very little sleep on top of the lost sleep from medical school) and we have two kids under two to boot. We relish any sleep we get and seem to be functioning these days on giant cups of coffee… BUT, I’m going to go ahead and dish out some sleep advice because, as they say, those who can’t [sleep], teach [about sleep].

Here are our top five ways of handling the sleep debt accrued during travel:

Stay in one location, and opt for an apartment/house over hotel room.

This is one major way our trip planning has changed since having kids. Having a “home base” from which we can take day trips has several benefits. The extra gear doesn’t have to be packed up each day, we don’t have to check-out by a certain time, our children can become better accustomed to the sleep location, and we all have a place to nap during the day. We road tripped in Iceland from town to town and had to rely on car naps for our toddler. It worked okay but we learned our lesson. The reason I opt for apartments over hotel rooms (aside from obvious benefits like the availability of a kitchen) is that the extra sleeping space replicates sleep arrangements at home and allows for better sleep for everyone. When we’re all in one hotel room we try to move the crib as far away from our bed as possible.

Reset brain’s melatonin release ASAP.

…which means switching over to the local time immediately and keeping the same bedtime as at home, even if children had a long nap on the plane. It also means waking up at the normal time instead of allowing everyone to sleep late. The adjustment can be especially hard when traveling across multiple time zones (and especially when flying east), but the sooner we get on the new schedule the better. It also helps to get as much sunlight as possible and to be active during the day. At bedtime, block out light to promote sleep (you can use black garbage bags as described here).

Stick to the normal bedtime (and naptime) routine .

If you have a good routine at home you should keep that routine when you travel. We do the same nightly routine wherever we are: brush teeth to Raffi’s “Brush Your Teeth” song, a few books (that we bring with us), and the girls’ goodnight song. We pack a white noise machine from home but have also used a free white noise app on our phones when we had to pack especially light. We were recently gifted this portable white noise machine and it’s awesome. Bring a favorite blanket, stuffed animal, and books (or consider buying books as souvenirs).

Also, skipping routine naps means trouble. Before having kids I thought I’d be super flexible and wouldn’t need to plan our schedules around a nap. Boy was I naive. I sometimes try to sleep during nap time (especially if we’re in one small hotel room and don’t want to disturb the kids) in order to work on my own sleep debt.

Fill up the sleep bank before departing.

Plan to get lots of rest before traveling. (I know- haha). Easier said than done but it’s usually my intention. I try to start packing days in advance so I can get a good night’s sleep the night before travel day. I recently read this article on NPR that recommends a “Nappucino”- drinking a cup of coffee before lying down for a quick nap. Even twenty minute naps can help fill up that sleep bank.

Ensure you get sleep so you can safely care for your children.

This can be especially difficult when flying east and your kid sleeps on the plane but you don’t. When you get to your destination you’re going to need to sleep but your child’s going to want to party. We often prefer a red eye which makes it more likely the children will sleep on the plane so that we can sleep, too. Then, when we reach our destination my husband and I will take turns napping while the other one hangs out with the wide-awake children.