Plan The Perfect Sleep Schedule For Your Journey

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Sleepy Jo-urney!

Life is often described as a journey. Our sleep is an essential rest stop to re-energize ourselves to carry on our wonderful and explorative journey of life. We often undertake a lot of trips and journeys in our life as well. Many of those result in a change in our lifestyles, schedules, routines as well as our sleep cycles.

These journeys can be short of long, and it is important to follow a proper sleep schedule and understand its importance and plan around it to make sure that our travel is fruitful and not a lengthy snooze fest. Here are some tips to get the best out of your journey:

Sleep Schedule - Travel

Before the Journey

Plan! Before you leave home for your adventure, plan ahead. It is important to estimate for yourself how exhaustive the journey might be. Make rough calculations regarding travelling hours, assess what kind of atmosphere you will get for your sleep, calculate how much sleep you will miss out on, take the time difference into account if there is any, and so. Even the mode of transportation you chose will have magnified effects on your sleep.

Once you assess all these criteria, you will be able to get a figure regarding how many hours of sleep you may fall short of according to your requirements. If it is a short trip (5-7 days), it may work out for you if you could complete your required hours of sleep even before you begin your journey. However, if your trip is for more than a week, it is advisable to make arrangements for sleep so as to not mess up a healthy sleep schedule.

As travelling is an important part of your journey, do carry good sleep masks and efficient neck pillows. You could also make a good sleep playlist to go to sleep to and cancel out the hustle-bustle around you. Invest in good noise-cancelling headphones so that you can prevent yourself from the frustration that comes from hearing non-stop crying babies.

Sleep Schedule - Travel

If you’re travelling in a group, it is a good idea to coordinate sleep timings and make plans accordingly as this may ensure that everyone gets to enjoy to their fullest without losing out on sleep. Or if you’re planning on doing night activities and staying up for them, get a good sleep during the day.

Planning on watching the sunrise with your group? Make sure you go to sleep at a decent time to be fresh and awake to take in the essence of the beautiful scenery you were looking forward to. If there’s a time difference due to changing time zones, do make sure to account for changing hours and give yourself a day or two to adjust, or else you will suffer from burn out and end up ruining your entire journey.

During the Journey and At the Destination

Now that you’ve planned ahead, be confident and go for it. While everything doesn’t have to go according to the schedule as your journey might be about letting go and enjoying, remember if you don’t rest enough, you’re not going to enjoy the journey as much.

Make sure to understand what your body needs. The changing routine and out of order schedule may make you feel amazing, you still need to allow for comfortable sleep, even if you get fewer hours of it.

If you’re staying at a hotel, make sure your needs regarding a calm environment are met. You really do not want noisy neighbours. If you’re camping, carry a comfortable sleeping bag. Use insect repellants so that those tiny tickers don’t disrupt your nap.

If it is a road trip, it becomes much more important for everyone involved to get their share of sleep. Take turns driving and make sure the driver is up and alert at all times. For this, make sure everyone gets a chance to sleep well! The sleeping area should be spacious and comfortable, so chose your vehicle and crowd accordingly.

Sleep Schedule - Journey

As mentioned before, do coordinate a schedule with your group so that everyone can enjoy the journey. Different modes of transportation might affect people differently, so those with travel sickness need to opt for least time-consuming transportation and carry with them medicines to control nausea. Sucking on a hard candy helps a lot. Those come in different flavours too! And once you’ve reached your destination, give yourself enough time to recuperate so that you can take another day head-on, with full enthusiasm.

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Ending the Journey

After you’ve experienced the magic the world has to offer to you through your journey, you might just want to dwell in the land of nostalgia once the trip is over. While it is good to indulge in thought and introspection through memories, our brain works drastically better when it is well-rested.

Therefore, once you are back home, exhausted and elated, change into your pyjamas and get that long, fulfilling nap. Once you do that, you’ll realize that it was much needed.

Now that you’re rested and feeling better, go and print those pictures out for your scrapbook or maybe gift your family the souvenirs you got them. Or if nothing, enjoy being at home at the end of your day! In any case, you will be a more experienced, well-rested, and a happy traveller. After all, your rest is also part of the journey of sleep!

So, have an amazing journey. Bon Voyage!

FAQs

How many hours of sleep do I need while travelling?

While it might be difficult to get complete 8 hours while travelling, one should try their best to get at least 4-5 hours, so that you can be alert and awake. Additionally, try to get more sleep before the trip to compensate for the lack of sleep during the journey.

What accessories are helpful to get good sleep while on a journey?

It is helpful to carry a good eye mask, comfortable neck pillow and maybe even a warm blanket while on a journey to catch up on your sleep.

What is travel insomnia?

It is a condition where a person has difficulty sleeping while traveling. However, there is a lot of work done on this condition and a lot of resources provide tips for relief to anyone suffering from this condition.


Featured Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

Written by Preeti Gokhale

The author is a sleep enthusiast. When not writing about sleep they prefer to either sleep or play games online. They also like to eat pizza and drink cranberry juice. You can often spot them on their way to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. You can connect with them via email!


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