CINCINNATI (WKRC) — A commonly prescribed sleeping pill could be a powerful tool in preventing Alzheimer’s disease, according to recently published research.

The study, published in Annals of Neurology, was born from the long-standing scientific belief that poor sleep increases a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s. This belief came from the fact that sleep clears out wasteful proteins like amyloid-beta and tau, which Alzheimer’s patients often have a high build up of.

The study examined suvorexant, a sleeping pill regularly prescribed for insomnia, and observed its effects on clearing those waste proteins.