Jet lag with kids: what to do in the first two days
Children get jet lag like adults do, and they wake you up to tell you about it. Daylight, meals on local time and capped naps do most of the work. Plan the first two days as recovery days.
The short version
- Flying east is harder than flying west. The CDC says so and every parent agrees.
- Daylight is the strongest tool you have. Get outside in the local morning.
- Switch meals to local time from the first day, even if portions are small.
- Book nothing important for the first two days after a long-haul flight.
How many time zones are you crossing
The number of time zones decides how much effort this needs. The CDC notes that a trip across fewer than three may not need any special plan. Past five or six, expect several rough nights and plan for them.
For a short trip across two or three zones, consider not adjusting at all. Keep the children on home time, with late dinners and late mornings or the reverse.
- 1-2 zones: ignore it. Shift bedtime by half an hour if needed
- 3-4 zones: two or three off nights, mostly at bedtime or dawn
- 5-8 zones: the first two days are recovery, the first week is uneven
- 9+ zones: day and night are swapped. Give it a full week
East versus west
The CDC states that travelling east is usually harder to adjust to than travelling west. Going east you ask the body to sleep before it is tired. Going west you only ask it to stay up, which children can do with enough daylight and distraction.
The pattern shows in the nights. After flying east, children lie awake until late and are impossible to wake. After flying west, they are up and cheerful at 04:00.
- Before an eastbound trip: move bedtime an hour or two earlier over a few days, as the CDC suggests
- Before a westbound trip: move it an hour or two later
- Eastbound on arrival: bright light early in the morning, dim evenings
- Westbound on arrival: outdoors in the late afternoon, hold bedtime as late as is reasonable
- Eastbound overnight flights: get the children to sleep on board, even badly
Light does most of the work
Daylight is what resets the body clock. The CDC's advice is to spend the day in well-lit places at the destination, and for eastbound trips to get bright light early in the morning. A dark hotel room at 10:00 keeps everyone on home time.
So the plan for day one is simple and cheap: be outside.
- Open the curtains as soon as the local morning starts
- Eat breakfast outdoors or by a window
- Plan the first morning in a park or playground, not a museum
- Dim the room an hour before local bedtime
- Pack a travel blackout blind or tape for early summer sunrises
- Keep screens out of the hour before bed
Naps and night wakings, by age
Naps are where jet lag gets fixed or dragged out. A four-hour afternoon sleep feels like mercy and costs you the night. Wake them. It is the hardest thing in this guide and the most useful.
When a child is wide awake at 03:00, keep the lights low and the room boring. A small snack is fine. Getting up to play tells the body it is morning.
- Babies: feed on demand as usual, and shift naps toward local times by day
- Toddlers: cap the nap at its normal length, and wake by mid afternoon
- Ages 3-5: a short rest is fine, a late long sleep is not
- Ages 6-10: no naps if they can manage, earlier bedtime instead
- Teens: they will try to sleep until noon. Agree a wake-up time before the trip
Meals and water
Meals are the second signal after light. Put breakfast, lunch and dinner on local time from the first day. Children may eat little at the table and then ask for pasta at midnight. Keep the mealtimes anyway and keep portions small. The CDC also suggests smaller meals to avoid an upset stomach.
Drink water through the flight and the first days. Cabin air is dry.
- Carry familiar snacks for the 03:00 hunger
- Offer breakfast soon after local wake-up, outdoors if you can
- A light early dinner works better than a long restaurant meal
- Stock the room with milk, fruit and bread on arrival day
The first two days, hour by hour
The CDC advises arriving at least two days before anything important. With children, treat those two days as part of the trip with nothing booked. No timed tickets, no long transfers, no dinner reservations.
Then follow the same plan both days.
- Arrival day: stay awake until an early local bedtime, outdoors as much as possible
- Day 1 morning: wake everyone by 08:00 local, breakfast, playground or park
- Day 1 afternoon: capped nap, then outside again until dinner
- Day 1 evening: bath, dim room, bed at the local version of normal bedtime
- Day 2: same again, with one easy outing added
- Day 3: start the real itinerary, with the main activity in the morning
Jet lag plan
Common questions
How long does jet lag last in children?
It depends on the number of time zones and the direction. After a long eastbound flight, expect the first two days to be hard and sleep to be uneven for up to a week. Short hops of one or two zones barely register.
Is jet lag worse for babies than for older kids?
Often it is easier. Young babies already sleep in short blocks around the clock and adapt with feeding and daylight. Toddlers and preschoolers tend to have the hardest time, because they have a fixed routine and can't yet understand why it changed.
Should I wake my child from a long nap after a flight?
Yes. Let the nap run its usual length and then wake them, open the curtains and go outside. A long late sleep on local afternoon time is what keeps a child awake at 02:00.