Travelling with kids: how can you minimise jet lag with your little ones?

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.