Americans Win Nobel Prize in Medicine for Sleep Discoveries

The scientists used fruit flies to identify the daily biological rhythm that governs daily life.

October 2, 2017 8:20 am
Woman sleeping at home in her bed (Getty Images)
Woman sleeping at home in her bed (Getty Images)

Scientists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were together awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on circadian rhythms, or the “internal clock” that governs daily life, NPR reports.

“With exquisite precision, our inner clock adapts our physiology to the dramatically different phases of the day,” the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet wrote in their prize announcement this morning. “The clock regulates critical functions such as behavior, hormone levels, sleep, body temperature and metabolism.”

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