NEW YORK -- Every day is Father’s Day right now for Jason Smith.

The New York Knicks forward and his wife, Kristy Smith, welcomed Ella Rose into the world on Oct. 9. And they’ve enjoyed every moment of parenthood.

“It’s been a blessing, really,” Smith said last week.

There’s one aspect of caring for a newborn, though, that wasn’t ideal for Smith’s day job: the late-night wake-up.

Ella didn’t sleep through the night initially -- and it was impacting Smith’s performance at work.

Jason Smith

#14 PF
New York Knicks

2015 STATS

• GM47

• PPG7.5

• RPG3.5

• APG1.4

• FG%.435

• FT%.827

“The first couple of weeks it was a lot of sleep deprivation, for sure,” Smith says. “As a first-time parent, you think you know what you’re in for. But when you’re actually there and she’s crying in the middle of the night, as a parent, you automatically tune it in. You can’t just tune it out and try to go back to sleep.”

That fitful, interrupted sleep is something young fathers in all walks of life have to deal with. But it can have an acute impact on someone who has to stay stride-for-stride with some of the best athletes on the planet.

“It can affect quantitative performance and physical performance,” says Dr. Ana Krieger, the Medical Director of the Weill Cornell Center for Sleep Medicine. “Your speed and accuracy and reaction time are heavily dependent on adequate sleep. So if [someone] is not sleeping the proper amount or having the quality [of sleep] required during the night, all of the neurological functions are affected.”

Smith can attest to this. He estimates he was getting about five or six hours of sleep per night after Ella was born.

That’s not terrible. But Smith slept in intervals of one-and-half to two hours because young Ella woke several times over the course of the night.

In those first months of fatherhood, Smith said he often walked into the Knicks’ practice facility the next morning with his “eyes glazed, just tired as can be. But you still have a job to do.”

The problem was, Smith’s sleep issues seemed to affect him on the court.

Smith averaged just seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes a game while shooting 42 percent from the field in the first half of the season.

That type of production probably wasn’t what Smith -- or Phil Jackson -- had in mind when Smith signed a one-year, $3.2 million contract to join the Knicks over the summer.

To be clear, Smith doesn’t want to use his poor sleep patterns as an excuse. But he acknowledges that “sleep deprivation ... is one of the hardest things to go through when you’re trying to perform at your highest level.”

Dr. Krieger backs that assertion.

“It can affect precision and accuracy of movement, and speed,” Krieger says. “During sleep, the entire body and muscles relax. By restoring the energy in the body and the brain, you can improve muscle activity as well.”

Smith is living proof of this theory.

A few weeks ago, Ella started mostly sleeping through the night. Since then, her dad’s play has improved.

In the past two weeks (six games), Smith is averaging 10.5 points and 6.0 rebounds. That’s four more points and 2.8 rebounds more than he’d averaged prior to this stretch.

He’s also more than tripled his assists per game (3.8 assists to 1.1). Additionally, Smith’s defense also seems to have improved: New York allowed 1.17 points per possession with Smith on the court over the first 41 games. That number has dropped to 1.08 in the past seven games.

“His level of activity has gone up tremendously,” Derek Fisher said earlier this month.

One reason behind this statistical spike is an increase in minutes. Smith is playing 32 minutes per game over the past seven games, up from 18 minutes a night.

But, Smith says, getting a better night’s rest has helped, too.

“If you can get some sleep at night, you’re a much more personable person during the day,” he says. “And you’re much more attentive to detail and practices. And you have a lot more energy for games too. Just going through the grind of an NBA season is tough and tiring and then you add having a baby on top of it -- it’s even that much harder.”

It’s gotten a little easier now that little Ella is sleeping through the night.