11/20/2025
Excellent advice from Dr Craig Canapari about upcoming holiday travel! He wrote a fantastic book called "Never too late to Sleep Train."
"Here’s the truth about holiday travel and sleep: most of what you’re worrying about doesn’t matter.
I get it. You’ve worked hard on your child’s sleep schedule. Maybe you just finished sleep training. Maybe you finally got consistent bedtimes working. And now you’re about to spend 3 days at Grandma’s house sharing a queen sized bed with a dog, a toddler, and a 14 month old who demands to exit the Pack N Play at 3am.
You’re expecting disaster.
But here’s what I’ve learned after 15 years of pediatric sleep medicine: kids are surprisingly resilient when it comes to short-term disruptions. It’s our anxiety about those disruptions that creates most of the problems.
Story time
Full disclosure here: my oldest used to have a night terror EVERY NIGHT we slept in a new place. Neither my parents nor my in-laws lived in huge houses-- so his screaming would wake up the whole house. And let me me tell you-- nothing makes you lose credit as a "sleep expert" when you can't get your child to stop screaming in the middle of the night.
I used to dread these trips. I was a bad sleeper as a kid too and this brought out a lot of my own anxiety about sleep. I would get stressed about making sure that every piece of sons' sleep routines was perfectly replicated whenever we travelled. And it made things more stressful than they had to be.
The One Thing That Actually Matters
Forget the exact bedtime. Forget the perfect nap schedule. Forget recreating your entire home setup.
Focus on this instead: maintaining your bedtime routine.
Not the timing. The routine itself.
If your routine at home is bath-book-bed, do bath-book-bed at Grandma’s. If it’s pajamas-teeth-three stories-lights out, do that. Even if it happens at 9pm instead of 7:30pm.
The sequence creates the sleep cue. The timing is negotiable for a few days.
And the cue will calm you down as well.
Three Things You Can Actually Stop Worrying About
1. The pack-n-play in the bedroom
Yes, room-sharing can disrupt sleep. For a weekend? It’s fine. You’ll survive. They’ll survive. Don’t create a bigger problem by stressing about a small one.
2. Missing naps
A few shortened or skipped naps won’t permanently damage your child’s sleep. Earlier bedtime that night. Done. Move on.
3. The “wrong” sleep environment
Too bright? Too loud? Not the ideal temperature? Kids adapt. If you’re worried, bring a portable sound machine and some blackout curtains. But don’t catastrophize.
What To Actually Do
Before you leave: - Stick to your normal schedule for 2-3 days before travel. Give them a strong baseline. - Pack your bedtime routine essentials: the lovey, the specific book, whatever signals “this is sleep time.”
While you’re there: - Keep the bedtime routine, even if the timing shifts - If they’re overtired, move bedtime EARLIER (yes, even if it feels wrong) - Let grandparents spoil them during the day, but you control the bedtime routine
When you get home: - Expect 2-3 days of adjustment - Get back on schedule immediately – don’t gradually transition back - If there’s protest, you may need to do a brief “refresher” on your sleep training method
The Real Survival Strategy
The goal isn’t perfect sleep during Thanksgiving. The goal is maintaining enough structure that you can get back on track quickly when you get home.
Think of it like this: if you eat pie for three days, you don’t forget how to eat vegetables. Your body just needs a day or two to readjust. Same with sleep.
Your child’s sleep skills don’t evaporate because they spent a weekend in a different environment. They just need a clear signal that we’re back to the regular routine.
One more thing: if your child struggles with travel sleep, that’s not a failure of your parenting or sleep training. Some kids adapt easily to new environments. Some don’t. Both are normal. Neither is permanent.
And here's what I can tell you now with a son in college and a son in high school. I laugh about the weird sleep arrangements and midnight awakenings and miss the chaos and fun of holidays with little kids. Don't beat yourself up. You are doing your best.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving. The sleep will sort itself out."
Dr. Craig
