The advantages of red-eyes and preschoolers is pretty straight forward. Flying is boring, you aren't allowed to move around, spread out, and you are limited with the number of toys you can bring on board the airplane. The red-eye guarantees that at least part of the five to twelve hour flight will involve sleeping. Ah the sweet angelic look of a preschooler asleep.
But there is a trade-off. On our trip to Florida we took Jet Blue and flew from SFO to Long Beach. Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was at 10 pm PST, arriving in Florida at 5:00 am EST. The problem with the flight was that it was too short. The boys fell asleep around 11 pm PST and woke up when we landed 3 hours later. When we got to my inlaws house the boys were too excited to sleep. This meant that we spent Friday with a three and four year old who had only three hours sleep.
Sleep deprivation and ADHD-like symptoms are linked. This is so true with our little Xander. Normally he is a sweet, empathetic sensitive little guy -- a total charmer, outgoing and sweet. Xander on three hours sleep is a crazy little nightmare. He cannot be reasoned or bargained with. He doesn't understand consequences. I cannot find a discipline technique that works when Xander is operating with no sleep. So is a smooth flight worth a day of a crazy preschooler?
So, what I've figured out. I think seven is the magic number. On flights seven hours or longer, the red-eye is a perfect choice when traveling with preschoolers. If the flight is shorter then seven hours then you have to understand the trade-off that your making. Especially on four day mini-vacations.
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