Being sleep deprived may put you at higher risk for Alzheimer’s, according to a new study.

The work, considered preliminary, showed that levels of amyloid beta, a marker for Alzheimer’s disease, normally go up during the day and down at night, according to a Health Day News story.

Scientists have long known that extreme sleep deprivation adversely impacts brain function, much like alcohol overconsumption does.

"But it's recently become apparent that prolonged sleep disruption and deprivation can actually play an important role in pathological processes that underlie diseases,” said Dr. Stephen Duntley, professor of neurology and director of Washington University's Sleep Medicine Center. “This connection to Alzheimer's disease isn't confirmed yet in humans, but it could be very important."

Reseachers, reporting in the upcoming issue of Archives of Neurology, looked at a variety of behaviors and found that the transition between being awake and sleeping was the activity that most correlated with fluctuations of amyloid beta in the spinal fluid.

To read the complete Health Day News story, Go Here.