New Owaves survey of 400 college athletes reveals what separates the ones who avoid setbacks — and it isn’t more recovery gear. It’s knowing when.
College athletes are training with more data, more recovery technology, and more product-driven interventions than any generation before them. Yet more than 1 in 3 (37%) experienced a fatigue-related injury, illness, or significant performance setback last season.
That’s a central finding of The Body Clock Report: Athlete Edition, drawn from Owaves’ survey of 1,000 U.S. college students — 400 of them current varsity, club, and intramural athletes. It isn’t for lack of tools: 67% use a tracker, and more than half (52%) say they have real control over when they train.
The report finds a clear separator between the athletes who lose time and the ones who don’t — and it isn’t budget or effort. It’s whether they correctly understand their circadian rhythm, the body’s internal clock, and structure their day around it. Athletes who do report 21% fewer setbacks per season.
“College athletes today are the most-monitored, most-supplemented generation of student athletes we’ve ever seen,” said Royan Kamyar, M.D., MBA, Founder and CEO of Owaves. “The foundational science of when to sleep, eat, train, and recover is still misunderstood by the majority. That gap is showing up on the field and court.”
For athletic programs, the findings make a straightforward case: circadian literacy and toolkits belong alongside nutrition and strength training as core athlete development, not an optional wellness add-on. The report lays out where to start.
The Athlete Edition breaks down training autonomy, tracker use, what athletes actually rank as most important to performance, and the full setback data. Plus, there’s a General Edition on what all 1,000 college students revealed about sleep, stress, and their internal clock.
Download The Body Clock Report: Athlete Edition below.