Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND, AFP/Getty Images

Three U. S. researchers have been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their  discoveries about the body’s daily rhythms.

The laureates,  Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michal Young, were honoured for isolation of a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythm.

They “were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings,” according to citation for the 9-million-kronor ($1.1 million)

Robash is on the faculty at Brandeis University, Young at Rockefeller University and Hall is at the University of Maine.

USA Today noted that Circadian rhythms adapt one’s physiology to different phases of the day, influencing sleep, behavior, hormone levels, body temperature and metabolism.