Five ways to minimize jet lag while traveling

One of the main questions I receive from parents traveling with their kids is how we deal with jet lag.  And honestly, parents have every right to be concerned because we all know how lack of sleep can affect our kids and us! 

Fortunately, our family have seen it all when it comes to jet lag and I have some pretty comical stories about our kids wide awake at night in our hotel room while Matt & I are passed out in our beds from a long flight that our toddlers napped through and are ready to play as soon as we arrive. 

Along the way we’ve learned to be more strategic with our flight bookings to help with jet lag and I also have five simple tips (below) you can implement day 1 of travel to make the time change feel less difficult!  

The easiest way we’ve noticed when flying east from America to Europe is booking a red eye flight.  We all sleep (poorly) on the flight, arrive late morning in Europe and we push through our first (shorter) travel day by site seeing and moving so that by evening we are EXHAUSTED and go to bed early and we can usually sleep through the night.  I hate being wide awake in the middle of the night and it is more likely to happen the first few days of travel while your body is adjusting.

If you have a baby or toddler, that may nap, I always suggest you keep them out all day and if they snooze in their stroller, try to only let them sleep a couple of hours at a time so they will still sleep at night.  Wake up your babies to nurse or feed every three hours during the day and at night hopefully they will sleep through the night. 

Here are some very practical tips that will help EVERYONE in your family adjust to a new time zone.

 FIVE tips to minimize jet lag: ✈️🥱

1. Shift meal times- eat breakfast foods at your new breakfast time zone and follow the food schedule you would typically follow back at home. 

2. Get natural light! The sun will help so much as your body adjusts- it may be nighttime back home, but being in the direct sun will help your body adjust to its new time zone.

3. Get moving. Exercise can help wake your body up.  Keep moving through out your day so you have exhausted yourself for nighttime to sleep through the night. *this one is sooo important for kids & jet lag if you want them to sleep at night!

4. Stay hydrated! Because water is my answer for literally everything: Have a headache? …Drink some water!  Tummy ache? …WATER!  Tired? …Water! 😅 Stay hydrated always 😉

5. Stay on your new schedule.  If you wake up at 8am back home, wake up at 8am on your new time zone. Do the same for bedtime. 

We have traveled to new time zones since our babies were 4 months old- it always takes a day or two to adjust but it’s never as bad as we think it’ll be! 

Who’s traveling out of their time zone soon?? ⏰  Let me know in the comments!