How to help children with time change

There was a time that the clocks moving forwards or backwards meant nothing more than one hour less, or one hour more of dancing in the club. Alas those times are no more, and the movement of those mere 60 minutes now cause a week long anxiety.

I know I am not the only parent that curses the clocks changing, as it slowly disrupts those finely honed routines. But is my anxiety around the movement of time impacting my decisions on where to go on holiday?

The end of winter is always a signal that the holidays are fast approaching and whilst the likes of the canaries do offer winter sun with minimal fuss, and Europe warms up nicely in the summer months. There are places further afield that offer so much in terms of culture, food, adventure, and sunshine.

But with those far-flung destinations comes the jet lag.

From the moment you conceive a child the chatter is always around getting no sleep, never sleeping again, and strangers praying for you that your baby sleeps. It’s easy to see why as parents anything that might disrupt our precious darling’s sleep sends us into a frenzy.

Add clock changes and jet lag to the equation and you can see why we’re all frazzled.

Infant sleep coach, Hannah Mason, from Dusk to Dawn spoke to us about why we are so hung up on clocks:

“When clocks change it removes control and for parents that can be really scary. When it comes to holidays, I think this is what puts most parents off those long-haul destinations.

“With jetlag, some parents may feel happy to wing it and sort it once they’ve arrived at their holiday destination, but if planning helps parents to enjoy their holiday more once they’ve arrived that’s okay too. It really does depend on your family.

“Whatever approach you choose, try and not to let the worry and anxiety of jetlag put you off taking a trip, it will be so worth it once you get there.”

Much like the clocks changing, jet lag is something that we all suffer from for a bit. But we need to remember that we all get over it, and children are often better at adapting than we are.

Here are Hannah’s Top tips to bet those jet lag blues (for you and the children):

Day of travel

With smaller children, you can stick to their awake windows/nap times if you’d like to keep some sort of routine. With toddlers and slightly older children it can help to lower your expectations of napping or sleep while travelling, they will probably be too excited to nap! 

If you’re travelling long haul, book a nighttime flight if you can and again lower your expectations of sleep. Take some sleep associations from home with you (a bunny, a comforter etc) to help encourage sleep on the plane. 

When you land, adjust into local time straight away, not just with sleep, but meals and snacks too.  

When arriving 

In the first few days, encourage lots of daylight and outside activities to encourage little ones to stay awake and then keep their sleep environment as dark as possible during sleep times to help their body clocks adjust to the new time zone. A darker room will help to avoid early waking and increase melatonin which helps sleep. 

Eat meals at the local time of your destination. This helps to send signals to our brains and helps our body clocks adjust. 

Short time differences (2-3 hours difference) 

There are a few options:

You can just keep things on home time. When we went to Mauritius, it was only 2 hours ahead, so we kept our 9month old on her usual UK time (7am-7pm) which meant she was doing 9am-9pm holiday time. This worked well for dinners out together and meant coming back home wasn’t a big adjustment. 

You can shift things to adjust to the new local time, but remember to shift your whole day (meals, naps and bedtime!). Don’t make the mistake of just adjusting your little one's bedtime otherwise, timings will quickly fall out of sync. 

You can adjust your routine gradually in the lead up to your holiday to help prepare. You can shift your little one’s routine by 15-20 minutes a day, a bit like a clock change.  

Long time differences (8+ hours difference) 

Just knowing in advance that the first few days will be pretty rough going can help to manage expectations. As much as possible, you need to just roll with it. It will get easier, and children are often much more resilient than we think. They will get into their new time zone quite quickly. 

Get plenty of light and outside time during the day and keep sleep environments as dark as possible. 

When little ones wake in the night, keep some small snacks in case of hunger and simple toys for them to play with if needed, but keep lights low and encourage them back to bed when possible. 

Use snacks, power naps (15mins-20mins max!) and distractions during the first few days to help your little one get into the new time zone. 

Parents can just wait and see how things are once they arrive at their destination, or they can adjust their routine at home in the lead up to the holiday to start getting into their holiday time zone. Doing this gradually, by 15-20 minutes a day is the best way. 

Whether it’s clock changes or exciting holidays, I think the takeaway from Hannah is don’t let it ruin a few days. Try and stay calm and go with the flow.

Check out our Airplane bag checklist.

Do you have any top tips for travel? Why not head over to the community and share?

Written by Victoria Cobley and Hannah Mason

Victoria is a Freelance journalist and content creator with two children aged 5 and 2.

Hannah is an Infant Sleep Coach based in Sheffield