TRENTON, N.J., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Losing sleep may cause the brain to stop producing new brain cells, a study conducted by New Jersey's Princeton University has found.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science research on rats found that the hippocampus portion of the brain was directly affected by a lack of sleep for a long period, the BBC reported.

By depriving rats of sleep for 72 hours, the researchers found that those animals consequently had increased amounts of the stress hormone corticosterone, and produced significantly fewer new brain cells in the hippocampus.