Handling Early Wakings when Traveling

An early morning is when a child wakes earlier than 6am for the day WITHOUT falling back to sleep, and before they had adequate night sleep.

However, It is not an early morning if…

⁃ It has been more than 10/10.5 hours of sleep

⁃ It is past 6am

⁃ They are hitting their average sleep needs between day and night sleep

⁃ They wake up and fall back to sleep

⁃ They wake within 30 minutes of desired wake time

Early mornings are a common challenge that many parents face with their babies and toddlers!

NOW ADD IN TRAVELING!!!

I know for my boys, early mornings are extremely common when we travel. Especially when we are traveling WEST!

Early mornings happen during travel for many reasons: time zone, sleep environment and being overtired from having an off schedule!

Time Zone:

When you are traveling to different time zones, your baby may wake up their normal time, however, it will be earlier in new time zone you are in!

What to do?

When your little one should be asleep, keep the room dark with zero stimulation. The sunlight tells your brain it is time to be awake, darkness helps you go to sleep! So keep the room DARK, DARK, DARK with minimum to no interaction.

If your little one is content in his or her crib, try to keep them in their until their designated out of crib time!

Sleep Environment:

Your little one may have an early morning because you are room sharing and / or you do not have room darkeners where they are sleeping!

What to do?

Mimic their room at home! Bring portable black out shades or put baby in a slumber pod! We love the slumber pod to not only block out the light from the windows but to help while we are room sharing.

Off Schedule:

Routines should stay the same as they are at home, but schedules may be off because it is vacation, of course. Remember kids are resilient and they will adjust, do not feel guilty if a couple naps are missed! However, if you are on the go and it is nap time, try and get the nap in on the go, if you can’t get the naps in, try for an early bedtime!

Once you get home, you’ll want to immediately go back to your normal schedule. It may take a day or 2, but stay consistent!  Your child may quickly fall back into their routines and distinguish the difference between travel and home.  However, if your child has developed a new sleep association while traveling (rocking, nursing to sleep, or just having you in the room), use your sleep training method to re-sleep train them once you are home! Responsive sleep training methods prove to help a lot whenever you're working through something like a this!