Travelling with kids: how can you minimise jet lag with your little ones?
- Written by: Weekend Times
Anyone who has flown with or near children can picture it: the crying kid, the frazzled parent and the cranky passengers.
Travelling with children can be tough, and the difficulties can
escalate when you cross a timezone or two.
Things don’t necessarily improve when you touch down, either. After long-haul travel, jet lag can impact our health for days afterwards.
Most adults have experienced jet lag, but what about when kids are involved?
What exactly is jet lag?
Jet lag refers to the temporary misalignment of a person’s internal body clock (or circadian rhythm) with the local time where they are. In other words, the body is still operating according to the time zone it has just come from, rather than the new time zone.
As the name suggests, jet lag is generally caused by air travel – when you cross multiple time zones very quickly before the body can adapt.
It can make you feel fatigued and sluggish during the day and make it hard to sleep at night in your new location.
Is it worse flying in a certain direction?
Yes, jet lag is worse when you travel east.
When travelling east, you are essentially “losing” time. This means when you try to go to bed at your destination, your body clock still thinks it is much earlier in the day.
You might find yourself lying awake at night because your body isn’t ready for sleep yet. Or you might wake up at a time that feels like the middle of the night.
When travelling west, your body clock is essentially “behind” the local time. This means you may start to feel sleepy earlier than usual because your body thinks it is later than it really is.
Fortunately for people travelling west, it’s generally easier to stay awake later than it is to fall asleep earlier. This means you can often push through some afternoon or early evening sleepiness until a more reasonable bedtime.
How does jet lag affect kids?
Kids tend to experience similar symptoms to adults, such as:
- finding it hard to get to sleep or stay asleep
- being cranky
- not wanting to eat at mealtime
- nausea
- generally feeling fatigued.
Surprisingly, not a lot of research has been done comparing the effects of jet lag in kids with jet lag in adults.
What we do know suggests kids might actually be affected a little less than adults. This might be because children produce more melatonin, which could help them adjust to new time zones a little quicker. Melatonin is the “sleepiness hormone” that our body naturally produces.
Evidence also suggests that as we age, we become less tolerant of jet lag. However, most of this evidence has looked at comparisons of young adults and older adults, so may not necessarily reflect the differences between adults and children.
Tips to reduce jet lag before you fly
The good news is, you can start adjusting your or your child’s body clock before you leave home.
This generally requires precise control of light exposure and possibly adjusting sleep times in the days before departure.
Every hour you shift before boarding is one less hour to catch up at the other end – though this means you are starting the jet lag early, at home.
Shifting the body clock before travel is demanding for anyone but with children you are also managing someone else’s schedule, energy and patience – someone who might not understand why they need to sleep an hour earlier than usual.
For many families, this isn’t realistic. However, from the moment you disembark, there’s plenty you can do.
Tips once you land
Your most powerful jet lag tool is free: daylight.
As a general rule of thumb, being exposed to morning light shifts your body clock earlier. Light in the late afternoon or evening shifts your body clock later.
Getting this timing right at your destination is the single most effective thing you can do to combat jet lag for you and your child.
Habitual time cues (everyday things that signal the time to your body, such as meal times or bedtime routines) can also help with the shift to a new time zone.
Try to move mealtimes to local schedules as quickly as possible.
Where you can, keep bedtime routines consistent. A familiar sequence of bath, story and lights out carries more weight than most parents realise. For young children, routine is one of the strongest signals that sleep is coming, regardless of what the clock says.
What about tech – or medication?
Most jet lag apps rely on the same principles: that light, melatonin and exercise can shift the body clock, and that timing matters.
If you are using an app or related technology, the amount of personalisation it includes is likely to determine how useful it is. At a minimum, apps should include questions about your sleep history, usual sleep schedule, chronotype (whether you are a morning or evening person) and travel itinerary.
Some people also use melatonin supplements for themselves, or their children, while travelling.
But unless you are working with a healthcare provider like a paediatrician, it’s generally not recommended to use these supplements. Taking the wrong dose, or taking melatonin at the wrong time, can actually make jet lag worse – for both adults and kids.
Madeline Sprajcer receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Dean J. Miller has consulted for various companies, athletes, and government bodies concerning jet lag adaption protocols.
