Author’s practical guidance
Hotels, trips and other time zones
Source named in the book: follow-up of parent-run sleep plans (Price)
Away from home two things go wrong, and they need different answers.
Say this now
“Different room, same bedtime. Look — bear's already here.”
Names what travelled — what they are scanning the room for.
“We're on vacation time. Home time starts tomorrow night.”
Marks the end of the exception, out loud, on the day back.
Do this
- Keep home time on trips under three nights, which is less work than shifting twice.
- Move by an hour a day for longer trips, starting with the wake-up time.
- Get outside in the morning light — it does more than any routine.
- Take the whole sleep kit — lovey, sound, night light, tape for curtains.
- Make the first night home the strict one, not the recovery one.
Avoid this
- Keeping them up the first evening to help them adjust — an overtired child settles worse, not faster.
- Trying to shift the schedule the night before you fly — you arrive with a broken schedule and a strange room.
- Sharing a bed for the trip and expecting it to end at home — it needs unwinding later, so decide in advance if it is worth it.
If it repeats
If it takes a week to recover from every trip, look at what got added while you were away, not at the time zone. What gets kept is almost always company — a hand held, a shared bed — unwound the same way it was built.
Why the book suggests this
Away from home two things go wrong, and they need different answers. A strange room is a bedtime problem, solved by bringing the familiar parts with you. A clock that has moved is a biological problem, and nothing you say at the door touches it.
For short trips the body does not adjust at all, which is useful:keeping home time for two or three nights beats shifting twice. Longer, and the clock moves about an hour a day, helped by daylight and meals rather than effort.
From this collection
Same Words: Every Night
45 prepared situations in this family area.