Traveling with little ones can be HARD. But if you're factoring in time changes while traveling, that's a whole other bag of worms. Anyone else's brain hurt when thinking about time changes? This is a question I come across a lot so I took some to put together my top tips for you!

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We will be discussing several different types of time changes so you can skim through to the one that fits your situation the best:

Traveling from west to east

Traveling from east to west

Other travel basics

1-2 hour time differences

time changes during travel

Traveling from west to east

If you're traveling from west to east and will have a time difference of 3 hours or more, you're in the right spot!

We will use traveling from California to New York as our example, that would be 3 hours of time difference but you could also use the same general framework when traveling from New York to France (a 6 hour time difference) for example.

If your child's bedtime is usually around 7pm in California, that means when you arrive in New York, the clock may say 7pm but your child's body won't feel like it's bedtime until 10pm. We are going to use that to our advantage.

1. Try to keep your child up until 10pm NY time (which will feel like 7pm CA time). This shouldn't be too hard, given how our bodies are wired but it will feel counterintuitive.
2. Then you're going to let them sleep in the next morning as long as they'd like. They may sleep all the way until 10am and get 12 hours or they may be up earlier. Either way is okay.
3. Shift bedtime each day accordingly. So if they slept in until 10am, you're going to have a later bedtime again. If they naturally shifted and woke up earlier, you'll shift bedtime a little earlier too.
4. They will not continue to wake up at 10am day after day while you're there. This wake up will naturally shift earlier and earlier which is why I suggest taking it slowly. That way they are regulating how much sleep they need/want rather than us forcing them into a new schedule.

Traveling from east to west

If you are traveling from east to west with a minimum 3 hour time difference, keep reading...

Again we'll use the example of traveling from New York to California but you can use this same framework for longer time differences like England to New York for example.

If your child's bedtime is usually around 7pm in New York, that means when you arrive in California, your child will actually feel ready for bedtime as early as 4pm. This means we will need to be stretching them to stay up later.

1. Try to keep your child up until what would be their usual bedtime on the clock. So even though they will want to treat 4pm as bedtime, you want to hold off bedtime until as close to 7pm as you can. This will take work.
2. Then you're going to keep their room pitch black until 11-12 hours after they go down for the night. If you did bedtime at 7pm, then they need to stay in darkness until 6-7am, even if they start waking at 4am. If they wake earlier, respond how you usually would at home (leaving them be, nursing, rocking back to sleep, etc).
3. It's very very important that we avoid outside stimulation and light until 11-12 hours after they fell asleep. This is where the adjusting happens!

time changes during travel

Other travel basics

I cannot stress the importance of light and darkness as you deal with time changes. Your circadian rhythm is highly sensitive to light and darkness and tells your body when to produce melatonin and when to stop. If you are adjusting to a big time change, use light and darkness to your advantage.

+Expose your child to natural light during the daytime wherever you are.

+Get your child's sleep space pitch dark when you want them to be sleeping. This will be harder at bedtime or early morning depending on which way you are traveling. Adjusting to different time zones is hard and it won't be totally smooth sailing but using light and darkness will help tremendously.

+I can't recommend the SlumberPod enough if you are a frequent traveler. It is perfect for achieving that ideal sleep environment on the go (and also for room sharing in a hotel- which is never easy)! Save 10% off your purchase with my code: ALLTHESLEEPS

+Be sure to see my separate blog with all my Travel & Sleep tips to make your trip more enjoyable for everyone involved.

1-2 hour time differences

If you are changing time zones but only by 1 or 2 hours, I recommend keeping things simple and not making any adjustments. I'd just keep your usual schedule if possible.

But also, understand that depending on how long your stay is, your child will naturally adjust to the current time zone- especially if any bit of light is coming into their room at bedtime or early morning.

For example, if you are traveling from CST to EST, your child's bedtime is usually 7pm CST which will feel like 8pm EST. I wouldn't change anything schedule wise and just follow their body clock. So I'd offer an 8pm bedtime and expect morning wake up to be about 1 hour later than usual rather than trying to stick to their schedule from home.

time changes during travel