Nearly 800 UCSD undergraduates enrolled in landmark study evaluating Owaves' BodyClock AI™ as a preventative, circadian-based intervention for student mood, focus, energy, and flourishing.
SAN DIEGO, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Owaves, Inc., creator of BodyClock AI™, the world's first AI platform for circadian health, today announced the close of enrollment for its first prospective randomized clinical trial, conducted in partnership with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The IRB-approved study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT07410585) enrolled 795 eligible UCSD undergraduate participants — nearly doubling its original target of 400 — underscoring the urgent demand among college students nationwide for scalable, preventative tools to support mental health and daily performance.
The trial is co-led by a distinguished team of UC San Diego principal investigators: Dr. Karen Dobkins, Professor of Psychology and a leading authority on perceptual development and well-being; Dr. Benjamin Smarr, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, internationally recognized for his work on circadian rhythms and wearable physiology; and Sophia North, PhD candidate in the Dobkins Lab, specializing in student health and behavioral science.
Addressing a Mental Health Crisis Through Circadian Science
College students today face unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, and burnout. National data continue to show that more than 60% of college students meet criteria for at least one mental health problem, while traditional campus counseling resources remain overwhelmed and reactive in nature.
The Owaves-UCSD trial takes a fundamentally different approach: rather than waiting for crisis, it tests whether aligning daily activities with each student's unique body clock can proactively improve mood, happiness, focus, and energy — with secondary outcomes including sleep quality, circadian alignment, and academic performance, collectively framed as "student flourishing."
"The question we keep coming back to is not just what students do in a day, but when they do it," said Dr. Karen Dobkins, co-Principal Investigator. "Timing matters — for sleep, for studying, for movement, for connection. This trial gives us a rigorous way to measure whether a simple, AI-guided daily plan can move the needle on the outcomes that matter most to college students."
"Wearables and behavioral data have given us an unprecedented window into the rhythms of real human lives," said Dr. Benjamin Smarr, co-Principal Investigator. "Owaves is one of the first platforms translating that science into something a student can actually use every day. We're excited to evaluate it under the gold-standard conditions of a randomized controlled trial."
"College students aren't short on motivation — they're short on alignment," said Sophia North, PhD candidate in the lab of Karen Dobkins at University of California, San Diego. "What excites me about this work is the opportunity to bridge that gap, helping students make decisions that are not just productive in theory, but actually sustainable within the natural patterns of their own lives."
Study Design
The trial is a randomized controlled study of UCSD undergraduates, comparing students who use the Owaves BodyClock AI™ app — which delivers personalized, AI-mediated chronocounseling and circadian-based behavioral guidance — against a control condition. Participants are followed across an academic term, with validated measures of mood, focus, energy, sleep, circadian alignment, and academic engagement. Full protocol details are available via the UC San Diego Clinical Trials registry and on owaves.com/ucsd-trial.
Enrollment exceeding the pre-specified target by nearly 400 participants reflects both the strength of the UCSD recruitment effort and the resonance of the trial's premise with today's students.
A Preventative, Scalable Model for Student Well-Being
Owaves is designed to shift mental health support from reactive intervention to proactive daily optimization — meeting students where they already are: on their phones, navigating packed and irregular schedules. By using AI to recommend when to sleep, study, eat, move, and rest based on each user's chronotype and goals, Owaves aims to deliver a low-cost, high-reach intervention that can complement existing campus counseling and wellness services.
"Universities cannot hire their way out of the student mental health crisis," said Royan Kamyar, MD, MBA, Founder and CEO of Owaves. "We need preventative, scalable tools that work alongside clinicians — and the science is increasingly clear that circadian alignment is one of the most powerful, modifiable levers we have. Closing enrollment on our first prospective RCT, with a partner like UC San Diego and at nearly double our original target, is a meaningful milestone in building the evidence base for BodyClock AI™."
Building an Evidence-Based Platform
The UCSD trial is the latest step in Owaves' multi-year research program. Earlier collaborations with Dr. Benjamin Smarr produced two retrospective studies, resulting in two preprints — one of which is in press with the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine — and academic poster presentations at the Center for Circadian Biology Annual Symposium and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Annual Conference.
Additional research is now being explored with the UC San Diego Department of Athletics, extending Owaves' evidence base from general student populations to high-performance environments.
Initial results from the current trial are expected later in 2026.
About Owaves
Owaves, Inc. is the creator of BodyClock AI™, a personalized daily planning platform that helps people align their schedules with their circadian rhythms to improve mood, focus, energy, sleep, and overall well-being. Founded by physician-entrepreneur Royan Kamyar, MD, MBA, Owaves combines circadian science, behavioral design, and AI-driven chronocounseling to deliver a preventative, accessible approach to health. Owaves has been recognized by Apple as a top-rated wellness app and is the subject of an expanding portfolio of academic research with leading universities. Learn more at www.owaves.com.
About the UC San Diego Research Team
The trial is conducted at UC San Diego under the leadership of Karen Dobkins, PhD (Department of Psychology); Benjamin Smarr, PhD (Department of Bioengineering and Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute); and Sophia North, PhD candidate (Department of Psychology, Dobkins Lab). Their combined expertise spans perceptual and developmental psychology, circadian biology, wearable data science, and student health.
Trial Information
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT07410585
UC San Diego Clinical Trials: clinicaltrials.ucsd.edu/trial/NCT07410585
Study landing page: owaves.com/ucsd-trial
Media Contact
Gayle Valensky, Owaves, Inc, 1 760-208-4532, [email protected], https://owaves.com/
SOURCE Owaves, Inc
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