Needless to say, the health and performance benefits of sleep should be a priority for all, regardless of your fitness goals. Lack of sleep has also been associated with a number of physical health conditions, including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. “We think that poorer sleep increases the carbohydrate craving and intake of calories that in turn leads to weight gain over time,” Dr Cunnington says. On the other hand, not sleeping well can increase your appetite and risk of obesity. When you sleep, your body releases growth hormones that help your muscles recover and regenerate, in time for your next workout. Whether it’s weight loss, muscle gain or just energy to get to the gym, sleep can help you smash your fitness goals.

At an extreme, these constant changes in mood can lead to anxiety and depression. “If we’ve not slept well, it can very quickly have an impact on our emotional stability – how quickly we go from 0–100,” Dr Cunnington explains. It can also help you to control your emotions (especially if you’re not a morning person).

Sleep can help your mental clarity by improving your learning, memory and concentration skills. But, sleep is important for your mental and physical health too. We all need our beauty sleep and you can certainly see the glowing effect a good night’s sleep has on our appearance. Here are some tips from Dr Cunnington to help improve your relationship with sleep. From studying at Harvard, USA, to working with sporting teams, airlines and NASA, Dr Cunnington knows sleep. “We need to show sleep a little more respect,” reveals Dr David Cunnington, a sleep specialist from Melbourne. In fact, according to the Sleep Foundation, up to 45% of Australians aren’t happy with their sleep. Whether it’s running late to a meeting, forgetting to charge your Fitbit, or skipping the gym – sleep (or lack of) cops a lot of blame from us. Many of us can admit to blaming a mistake on a bad night’s sleep. If you’re dreaming of better sleep, this one’s for you. It pops up when you least expect it, but it’s nowhere to be seen when you’re looking for it.

Fitness sleep expert