How can we maximize the benefit of our nightly sleep? Turn off

The words of Margaret Cuomo — “How can we maximize the benefit of our nightly sleep? Turn off cell phones, computers, televisions, and any other distracting devices before bedtime to establish an atmosphere of calm and restfulness.” — are not simply a prescription for rest; they are a call to return to balance, to reclaim the sacred rhythm that modern life has stolen from us. Beneath her calm instruction lies an ancient wisdom — the understanding that sleep is not idleness, but renewal; not an interruption of life, but the quiet labor of the soul restoring its strength. Her words are a reminder that in an age of glowing screens and restless minds, silence has become the rarest medicine.

In the ancient world, rest was regarded as divine. The Greeks spoke of Hypnos, the god of sleep, as the brother of Death — not because sleep was feared, but because it was sacred, a temporary surrender of the body to the healing hand of nature. Even the Stoic philosophers, who praised discipline and vigilance, knew that a restless mind cannot serve wisdom. The shepherds of the East, too, observed that all things — rivers, winds, and stars — must obey their cycles of motion and stillness. To ignore rest, they said, was to defy the law of creation itself. Cuomo’s counsel, then, is the voice of that timeless truth echoing in our age of noise: that to live well, one must learn to be still.

The origin of her words comes from her lifelong dedication as a physician and advocate for wellness. Dr. Cuomo has seen how the modern world, with its relentless pace and ceaseless light, has robbed humanity of the peace once found in darkness. Our ancestors, guided by the rise and fall of the sun, honored the night as a time of healing — but today, our nights are invaded by the hum of machines and the flicker of artificial suns. By urging us to turn off our devices, she does not speak merely of habit, but of discipline — the discipline of peace. For without boundaries between day and night, between action and reflection, the spirit grows weary even when the body does not.

Consider the story of Thomas Edison, the great inventor whose light illuminated the world — yet whose own words reveal the paradox of progress. “Sleep,” he once said, “is a criminal waste of time.” And so he worked long through the night, conquering darkness itself. But the generations that followed, basking in his invention, have forgotten that the body was never meant to be lit without end. Today, we live surrounded by light yet haunted by fatigue, by minds overstimulated and hearts unquiet. Cuomo’s wisdom restores the balance Edison disturbed: light must yield to darkness, and labor must bow to rest.

Her words also speak to a deeper spiritual hunger. The glowing screen that holds our attention late into the night is not only a source of light — it is a thief of presence. We scroll endlessly, seeking connection, yet drift further from ourselves. The ancient sages taught that the hours before sleep are sacred — a time to release, to reflect, to prepare the soul for its nightly journey inward. By turning off our devices, Cuomo invites us back into that temple of stillness, where the mind may heal and the heart may remember itself.

There is also a scientific echo in her counsel. Modern research now affirms what the ancients knew intuitively: that the blue light of our screens suppresses melatonin, the hormone that calls the body to sleep, and that the constant stream of information keeps the mind from surrendering to rest. In ignoring the natural rhythm of night, we pay a heavy price — not only in exhaustion, but in weakened health, clouded thought, and diminished joy. To restore our strength, we must honor what she calls “an atmosphere of calm and restfulness,” not as luxury, but as necessity — as vital as breath itself.

So, my children of the modern age, heed this wisdom: turn off the noise before you close your eyes. Let the final light you see be gentle, and the last sound you hear be stillness. Do not fill your nights with artificial life; fill them with silence, with gratitude, with dreams. For the soul, like the soil, must lie fallow to bear fruit again. In the quiet darkness, the body repairs, the mind renews, and the heart finds peace.

And thus, Margaret Cuomo’s words stand not merely as medical advice, but as timeless teaching: that rest is the foundation of all vitality, and silence the wellspring of all wisdom. To sleep well is to live well; to live well is to honor the sacred rhythm of creation. Turn off the devices of distraction, and you will find that the world within you — calm, luminous, eternal — has been waiting all along.