FINALLY – you’ve made it to your travel destination. You’ve planned this trip for months and cannot wait to start exploring! After all that time in the plane, you’re ready to get a good night’s sleep before the week-long list of activities begin. The problem is… You’re having a rough time getting to sleep.

There’s no denying how important sleep is for the body. I even mentioned this in a previous post discussing how to prep your body for Walt Disney World. Sleep’s vital role in staying healthy is documented so often that every time someone mentions how important it is, they’re practically preaching to the choir. However, it’s very common that sleep is disrupted when traveling.

So when you’re out traveling, how can you get better sleep? Here are my top 5 tips for sleeping better while on vacation. You’ll want to read to the end of this one!

If you like what you read, go ahead and like my post and share it with your friends. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas you would like me to blog about in the future, feel free to leave a comment down below!

Check Your Pillow!

There are a plethora of pillow types available in your market. However, when it comes to what you’re likely to encounter on vacation, hotels tend to choose pillows with firmness levels between medium-firm to medium-soft with a medium loft to please a wide range of people.

If this pillow type works for you, great! If not, you’ll need another option. Conversely, you might end up in a pillow that’s too hard, too soft, overstuffed, or flat.

Here’s your solution: give a call to the front desk and ask if they have any other types of pillows available. Higher end hotels usually offer a variety of pillow types. While it’s not guaranteed that they have what you want, they may have something similar!

Jet Lag

Jet lag can be a big culprit when it comes to being able to sleep. When traveling to another time zone, there’s a shift in your body’s sense of day and night. Until your circadian rhythm is reset, symptoms of jetlag persist. If you’re traveling to a location with a different time zone, you want to consider how far ahead or behind in time. The farther you travel, the more time it may take to adjust.

What can you do about this? If you have the ability to plan ahead, you should shift your sleep and wake times to be in sync after you arrive at your destination. When traveling by plane, try and stay awake on the plane and when you arrive. Avoid the urge to take naps and stay awake until your normal bed time based on local time. Finally, use the sun to your advantage and get direct sunlight as soon as you wake up at your destination to help reset your body clock.

In the end, however, fully adjusting to different time zones takes a few days. So, while the strategies I mentioned above may help initially, time is ultimately your friend (or enemy) in the end.

Schedule Change

No matter where you travel to, your daily schedule is bound to change. When you wake up at your hotel, you don’t have your kitchen to walk to to make your favorite pot of coffee. You’ve planned activities from early morning into the evening. Since you’ll be getting back to your hotel late at night, your nightly routine changes.  When you’re traveling to a different time zone, this change is magnified by the time difference. 

It might not seem like much, but this schedule change can put unwanted stress on the body. Couple that with all the preparation and planning you had to make for your trip, the crying children on your flight, and jet lag (not to mention any family arguments that happened on the way to your destination), and it all adds up!

Obviously, you’re unlikely to change your plans during the day – you’re on vacation, after all! However, your best bet is to keep your most important daily rituals – how you start and finish your day. That way, no matter what happens in the middle of your day, you still have the most control over how your day begins and ends. Read a little more about this concept in my previous post here!

Travel Stress

There’s no denying it: travel can be very stressful. From the planning, purchasing, flying or driving, to angry travelers and plans going awry, almost any aspect of travel can boil your blood. While many of these things are beyond your control, there is certainly one thing you can control: how you perceive what happens.

As mentioned in my post on being stranded in the airport, another strategy to keep your cool is to practice mindfulness meditation. My absolute favorite app to help me with this is Calm, but there are plenty of other popular ones out there (some that are free!). And when all else fails, YouTube can be your best friend.

Your Most Comfortable Sleeping Position

This may come as a huge shocker, but most people tend to sleep in the position of their preference (mind blown), with the most popular posture being sidelying. While sidelying is recommended specifically for those who have obstructive sleep apnea, there is no one best sleeping posture.

You read that right- there is no one best sleeping posture. Researches have found that there is no correlation between different sleeping positions and neck, shoulder, back, or arm injury. Besides, every night, we tend to move up to 33 times per night and adopt 7-8 different sleeping postures – without consciously even knowing it!

So, what do you do? Choose a sleeping position completely based on your own comfort. With that said, here are a few sleeping positions that my patients have found comfortable when they were dealing with pain:

So there you have it – my top 5 tips for sleeping better while on vacation. Remember, if you like what you read, go ahead and like my post and share it with your friends. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas you would like me to blog about in the future, feel free to leave a comment down below!

Remember, these are only suggestions. It’s always recommended that you speak to a medical professional about your particular situation before you travel.