When babies learn to crawl, stand, or walk, their brains stay active on these skills even at night, disrupting sleep. It's like how adults can't sleep before big events. Understanding this helps parents recognize sleep regressions as normal development, not a problem to fix.
I have a question for you. How did you sleep the night before your wedding or an important exam or a big job interview? Did you sleep well or was sleep a little off? Here's why I ask that. I want to show you how it applies to your baby. Often when our brains are busy or super focused, sleep can be interrupted. And for your baby, learning a new skill like rolling, crawling, pulling up or walking is a big deal. In their little brains they are super focused on it. So you put them in that crib and they're like I think I'm going to practice my new skill and then I'm going to wake up at midnight and 3am and do it again. It's not much different than us going over that exam the night before and thinking about it keeping our brains really busy. It's not that sleep is forgotten, it's just that it takes a backseat to what's keeping our brain busy.
