I can be staying in five-diamond accommodations on vacation, and I never get as good of a night’s sleep as if I were home. I know all the tricks of using hangers to make blackout curtains, get the extra pillows/blankets out, etc., but nothing seems to work.
A reader asked this question in a recent live chat on sleep issues, and I hear variations of it from my patients. Sleep trouble while traveling is a common problem. Challenges can occur for many reasons, but fortunately, there are solutions to help you sleep better when you are not in your own home. These suggestions are not a substitute for individualized health care.
Anxiety about travel
Anxiety – about travel logistics, unfamiliar places and people, family members and pets back home, viruses, being alone in a hotel room – can impair sleep. So can excitement. Also, many people have trouble the first night in a new environment because they are extra vigilant.
Poor sleep also contributes to anxiety, so if you arrive exhausted, your anxiety may be worse.
And even though we tend to be better copers with age, battle-tested and philosophical, travel as we get older can spark anxiety born of awareness of real-world threats and – because we are less shielded by youth – feelings of social vulnerability.
Sleep trouble could be a message that you are feeling anxious about something. It calls for curiosity. It’s okay to be anxious. It’s natural. It’s information. Give yourself credit for being a brave traveler.
When we are anxious, we need more than blackout curtains or extra pillows. We need emotional comfort, the knowledge that we are safe, and familiarity. Ask yourself what it would take to experience the bed as a refuge, as a safe place to lower your guard and let go. You can then structure your decisions around your answer.
Here are some ways to ease nighttime anxiety while traveling:
- Call a loved one before sleep.
- With eyes closed, vividly imagine yourself in a safe place of your choosing or try free guided meditations through Insight Timer, the Plum Village app, or psychologist and Buddhist author Tara Brach’s website.
- Recite a safety mantra in your mind; I shared one here.
- Bring a pillow from home.
- Read the same book (or listen to the same podcast or audiobook) you would use at home to fall asleep.
The last two measures would confer familiarity and exploit any positive conditioned associations you’ve established between those objects or actions and ease and sleepiness.
Identify and, where possible, quell your anxieties during the day so that they are not operating at a subterranean level at night.
Anxiety about not sleeping can cause us to hyperfocus on sleep. Know that it is not your job to sleep and that you are going to get through these hard nights. Putting your mind elsewhere can help. I wrote more about this topic here.
Sleep habits
Behaviors affecting sleep tend to change when we go on vacation. These changes may encourage better sleep: more exercise, more sunshine, plenty of recreation away from the stress of the everyday. But the differences can also work against good sleep. Often people consume more alcohol, for example.
Our drive for sleep has its limits. If you go to sleep too early, your sleep can fragment. If you sleep in, you may have trouble with sleep the next night.
Many of my patients’ sleep hours became less regular and overly long during the pandemic, and have remained so with more flexible work arrangements. Their sleep is more fragile.
To encourage sleep during travel, pay at least a little attention to re-creating the conditions that work best for you at home, especially because other factors (for example, a novel environment) are working against you.
Even if it means a late night, don’t get under the covers of that hotel bed if you’re feeling wired. Wait until you are tired and peaceful and within reach of feeling sleepy. Consider ways to wind down for a while before bed (for example, reading) even if there aren’t many options in the hotel room. There are also muscle-relaxation techniques such as Yoga Nidra to help ready the body for sleep.
Environment
There may be environmental obstacles to sleep. You might be sharing the room with children whom you don’t want to awaken. You might have to adjust to someone else in the room. The blankets might be thinner than you prefer or the room stuffy. The air conditioner might groan to life at unpredictable intervals. The light on the smoke detector might blink. There might be hallway noise.
An extra blanket or a sound machine, ear plugs and an eye shade could all help. Listening to a gentle audiobook, lecture or podcast can be a good way to insulate yourself from other people pre-sleep.
Jet lag
For many travelers, jet lag could be a factor. There are ways to shift your rhythm in the lead-up to a trip so that you are already adapted to the new time zone when you land. Check out apps such as Timeshifter, which prescribes regimens for light, darkness and melatonin to effect the desired time-zone adjustment.
If the app’s instructions feel unwieldy, a sleep professional can counsel you about the optimal time for a flight; how to manipulate your rhythm with light and darkness, exercise and mealtimes; and (if medically acceptable) when to take low-dose melatonin.
Those who struggle despite their best efforts with psychological and behavioral interventions might find reassurance in having sleep medication available when they travel.
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