A team of researches from the Princeton University have discovered that lack of sleep could lead to memory loss and they suggest that people take a nap to reverse the effect of sleep deprivation.

British scientists studied rats which were deprived of sleep for up to 72 hours. According to the New Scientists, sleep deprivation in rats causes stress hormones to accumulate in a part f the brain called the hippocampus, which stops the growth of cells that lay down new memories.

Elizabeth Gould, lead researcher said, "The decrease in neuron production coincided with an increase in the major rodent stress hormone, corticosterone."

The scientists then stopped production of corticosterone in rats by eliminating their adrenal glands, surprisingly, the animals started producing new neurons as normal despite being deprived of sleep.

Gould adds, "We know that sleep deprivation is stressful, and that it impairs certain types of learning and memory. We concluded that sleep deprivation decreases neurogenesis by elevating stress hormones."

The results of the study supports previous studies which show that sleep-deprived people are worse at remembering how to accomplish newly learned tasks than they do with normal amount of sleep.

Researchers say the study provide a clue in explaining how lack of sleep damages memory, pointing to the importance of sleep in the right hormonal conditions.