Not getting enough sleep at night will not only make you a zombie the following day, it could also compromise kidney function, according to a recent study.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital found that shorter sleep duration was significantly linked with a more rapid decline in kidney function. As an example, women sleeping five hours per night had a 65 percent increased likelihood of experiencing a rapid decline in kidney function compared with women sleeping seven to eight hours per night, after controlling for various factors.

"This is the first prospective study to find that shorter sleep duration is associated with a more rapid decline in renal function," McMullan said in a statement. "The findings of this paper coupled with research from others suggest that renal physiology may be adversely affected by disruption in sleep, including sleep restriction."

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 4,000 people from the Nurses' Health Study with kidney function measurements on at least two occasions over an 11-year period.

The findings, which were presented at the American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week 2015 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif., point to the importance of sleep for maintaining kidney health.

ASN Kidney Week 2015, the largest nephrology meeting of its kind, will provide a forum for more than 13,000 professionals to discuss the latest findings in kidney health research and engage in educational sessions related to advances in the care of patients with kidney and related disorder.