Correction: Age-related differences and discrepancies between objective and self-assessed executive functions in youth academy footballers.

Sleep is increasingly recognized as a fundamental determinant of physical, mental, and cognitive health, rather than a passive state of rest. Healthy sleep encompasses not only adequate duration but also good subjective quality, appropriate timing, regularity, and the absence of clinically significant sleep disorders (, ). Disturbances in sleep duration, continuity, and circadian alignment have been linked to impaired emotional regulation, reduced executive function, metabolic dysregulation, and increased cardiometabolic risk (, ). Among sleep-related complaints, poor sleep quality and insomnia symptoms—characterized by persistent difficulties in initiating or maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, or non-restorative sleep despite adequate opportunity, accompanied by daytime impairment such as fatigue, reduced concentration, and emotional disturbance ()—are particularly consequential for populations whose daily functioning depends heavily on cognitive performance and emotional resilience (–). University students represent one such population, with a disproportionately high burden of poor sleep. The transition from adolescence to early adulthood is accompanied by major changes in living environment, academic demands, social routines, lifestyle autonomy, and digital media exposure, all of which may destabilize sleep–wake regulation (, , ). A recent global meta-analysis estimated the pooled prevalence of insomnia symptoms among undergraduate students at approximately 47% (), substantially exceeding estimates reported in the general adult population. This vulnerability appears to be driven by interacting mechanisms: evening use of electronic devices and social media can delay sleep onset through blue-light exposure, cognitive arousal, and the displacement of sleep opportunity (, ), while academic stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and ruminative thinking sustain a state of cognitive and physiological hyperarousal that disrupts the normal transition from wakefulness to sleep (, , ). Within a public-health framework, poor sleep among university students should therefore be viewed not as a transient lifestyle inconvenience, but as a modifiable population-level health concern with implications for academic achievement, mental wellbeing, and long-term cardiometabolic and psychiatric outcomes (, –). Evidence-based treatments for chronic insomnia emphasize behavioral and psychological interventions—most notably cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)—as first-line care (, ). Pharmacological treatment may be considered in selected cases, but its use is limited by concerns regarding residual daytime sedation, impaired cognitive performance, tolerance, dependence, and its failure to address the behavioral and psychological drivers of insomnia (, ). These limitations are especially salient for university students, whose academic responsibilities demand sustained attention, memory consolidation, and daytime alertness (, ). Although CBT-I demonstrates strong efficacy, its real-world implementation in campus settings is constrained by limited access to trained providers, high time demands, low adherence to behavioral protocols, and a poor fit with irregular student schedules and shared living environments (–). From a public-health perspective, there is therefore a pressing need for scalable, acceptable, low-risk, and non-pharmacological strategies that can be embedded into students' daily routines.