This one is inspired by my fellow hockey families that travel abroad for the season! We make the move to Europe and back to North America twice each year for my husband’s work as a professional hockey player. I’ve done this trip with children from when they were babies up until 6 years of age and have attempted a couple approaches and feel like I’ve landed on the most successful way to manage sleep with time changes!

I’m going to separate this blog by direction, as that tends to have a factor in how we tackle sleep. I’ll also include some ideas for traveling shorter time zone changes and general travel tips at the end.

Having a dark room is an extremely important component of great sleep habits. Darkness helps our bodies produce melatonin, the hormone that leads to sleepiness. Also, babies & children are easily stimulated, so keeping their room as dark as possible avoids any visual distractions and disturbances to sleep. 

Even the slightest bit of light can lead to shorter naps, early morning wakeups, and interrupted sleep. I tell my clients that we are going for cave-like dark; ‘can’t even see my hand in front of my face’ dark!

Unfortunately, there are so many curtains out there marketed as blackout curtains, that simply don’t do the job! I’ve put together a list of some of the most recommended options for blackout solutions for your child’s room. They are organized by most economical to the largest investment.