[bunderbunder]

There's one key piece of knowledge that finally helped me understand all the conflicting advice I got from other parents: Knowing a little bit about the psychology of superstitions and how they tend to develop.

Long story short, if you're in a stressful situation where things you really want and care about (e.g., sleep) seem to happen randomly, then you're going to be actively hunting for any pattern that you can grasp onto. You're also going to be in a situation that's chock full of spurious correlations.