Crawling in and out of sleep

The goal of the study was to examine the link between motor attainments and sleep-wake regulation by comparing the sleep characteristics of infants who are crawling with the sleep of same-age infants who have not yet acquired the locomotion milestone. The participants were 59 healthy 8-month-old infants with no developmental delays, who were recruited through well-baby clinics and childcare centers. The measurements included objective sleep recordings (actigraphy), sleep questionnaire, and motor milestones checklist. The main finding was that the sleep of crawlers was more fragmented in comparison to the sleep of pre-crawlers. While the findings of this report give support to the hypothesized link between sleep regulation and motor development, more studies are needed to clarify why crawling might provide a marker of nightwaking. In discussing the results, it is proposed that the association between fragmented sleep and crawling could be related to maturational, constitutional, and relational factors.