Children adjust to jet lag faster than adults, research suggests
Children produce more melatonin, which may help them adapt to new time zones quicker than grown-ups.
Jet lag is when your body clock falls out of sync with the local time after air travel. Jet lag makes you feel sluggish during the day and keeps you awake at night.
Children tend to experience similar symptoms to adults. Research suggests kids may recover faster than adults, possibly because they naturally produce more melatonin, the hormone that signals sleep.
Travelling east is harder than travelling west: your body loses hours and refuses to sleep when it should. Travelling west lets you stay awake longer, which is generally easier to push through.
You can start shifting your child's body clock before you leave home by controlling light exposure and adjusting bedtimes in the days before departure. Every hour you shift at home is one less hour to catch up at your destination.
Why it mattersParents planning long flights can prepare their kids' sleep schedules in advance to ease the transition and reduce days lost to jet lag exhaustion.
AustraliaAustralian families flying to the US or Europe can use light and sleep shifts before departure to help children adapt faster, cutting into holiday lost time.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 4 d ago
