New report highlights circadian timing and control as one of the most powerful, and most overlooked, opportunities in personalized medicine
NEW YORK, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Timeshifter, the global leader in circadian technology and the company behind the world’s most-downloaded jet lag app, marked Circadian Awareness Day with “Why Timing Matters in Healthcare,” a new report from Dr. Steven W. Lockley, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Timeshifter, and an international authority on circadian rhythms and sleep with more than 30 years of research experience.
The report outlines how medicine has spent over a century perfecting measurement and prescription, while paying little attention to timing. A systematic survey of more than 100 clinical trials spanning fifty years found that roughly three-quarters were significantly impacted by time of day. These findings spanned common conditions including high blood pressure, asthma, arthritis and cancer. Real-world examples included older adults given a morning flu vaccine producing more antibodies than those vaccinated in the afternoon; a common cholesterol drug working better when taken at night; and heart-valve surgery patients treated in the afternoon suffering less heart-muscle injury than those operated on in the morning.
The report also makes the case for “chronodiagnostics” – the idea that a single test result, such as a cortisol or cholesterol reading, means something different depending on the biological time at which it was taken. Individual circadian rhythms can vary by up to eight hours across a population, so the same 8 a.m. blood draw or medication dose can represent a very different biological moment from one person to the next, a gap that clinical medicine has yet to systematically account for.
Circadian Awareness Day is observed annually on 24 July (24/7) to highlight the profound influence circadian rhythms have on nearly every aspect of human experience, including sleep, alertness, metabolism, and immune function. The initiative also seeks to counter misinformation around circadian-related challenges, like jet lag, shift work disruption, and peak performance.
“Every year, promising drugs fail in clinical trials not because the science was wrong, but because nobody asked when the medicine was given relative to each patient’s own biological clock,” shared Mickey Beyer-Clausen, Co-Founder and CEO of Timeshifter. “Dr. Lockley’s report makes a compelling case that timing is not a footnote to healthcare — it may be one of the most overlooked levers we have for making existing treatments work better, for more people, at lower cost.”
Circadian medicine is gaining momentum as healthcare leaders increasingly recognize that biological timing can play a meaningful role in health outcomes. Healthcare is also one of the sectors most exposed to circadian disruption in its own workforce, given how many clinicians and staff work rotating or overnight shifts. Timeshifter’s shift work app utilizes the same core technology platform behind its jet lag app to deliver personalized, evidence-based guidance to shift workers and the organizations that employ them. In 2026, Timeshifter launched pilots with healthcare organizations around the world to prove how circadian technology can improve the sleep, alertness, health, and quality of life of shift workers.
“We can already model and measure circadian phase, and the tools to do it are only getting faster and cheaper,” said Dr. Steven W. Lockley, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist at Timeshifter. “Once a clinician can check a patient’s circadian time as easily as their blood pressure, we will be able to read every test result in the right biological context and time every drug, vaccine and procedure to when it will do the most good and the least harm.”
As circadian science continues to move into the mainstream, Timeshifter hopes Circadian Awareness Day will serve as a catalyst for greater collaboration between scientists, clinicians, employers, workers, and policymakers working to improve health outcomes. All Timeshifter’s Circadian Awareness Day resources can be viewed here: timeshifter.com/circadian-awareness-day.
Read Dr. Lockley’s full report, ‘Why Timing Matters in Healthcare.’ Explore Timeshifter’s jet lag app, shift work app, and sports performance services at www.timeshifter.com. To discuss shift work deployments for your enterprise or circadian timing opportunities in healthcare, reach our team here.
About Timeshifter
Timeshifter is the global leader in circadian technology, translating circadian science into breakthrough products and solutions that improve human performance, safety, and health. In 2018, Timeshifter made jet lag history with its first product — now the most-downloaded jet lag app in the world. Building on this success, Timeshifter introduced a groundbreaking app to help shift workers improve their sleep, safety, health, and quality of life. Timeshifter’s concierge services help astronauts, NBA players, Formula 1 drivers and Olympic athletes perform at their best. Timeshifter has received several awards, including the National Sleep Foundation’s SleepTech® Award and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, and has partnered with leading brands, including United Airlines, Lufthansa Group, and InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. For more information, visit www.timeshifter.com
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SOURCE Timeshifter Inc.
