In addition to sleeping in darkness, consider limiting your exposure to artficial light after dark. I'm working with this now to try and optimize my hormone levels. 4 hours of darkness is required for the brain to produce the prolactin surge that precipitates all sorts of other important hormonal cyles....

Is there any benefit to adding a bit of liquid whey when starting a batch of high meat? Would it encourage beneficial bacteria like it does when making lactofermented vegetables?