The Candle Protocol for Deeper Sleep

Rather than accept the grunt work that lies ahead, and steel themselves to get their hands dirty, people tend to search for their solutions in quick fixes, magic pills, and druid-ish potions. Searching for the easy path, and ignoring anything that involves “work” is a sure-fire way to keep yourself stuck and never make any tangible progress. Instead of looking at ways to solve the problem that’s beleaguering you, you’re doing little more than slapping a Band-Aid over your dirt-filled wound and hoping that it doesn’t turn into a festering, oozing infection that spreads to other parts of your body.

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Why leave your health, your progress, and your physique to chance, especially when you have the ability to do something about it?

I assure you won’t find the solution to famine, disease, or war in this article. But what you will find is an easy-to-implement solution that will have a quicker, more impactful, and longer-lasting effect on your health, your physique, and your progress than anything you’ve ever done before.

Here it is: Y'all need deep, more restorative sleep. And here’s how to do it.

Your sleep is the simplest area of your life that you can improve, and the results you’ll see from doing so are exponential. It can help with:

• Headaches and migraines
• Brain fog
• Weird cravings
• Pervasive, negative thoughts
• Sore, aching joints
• Blood-sugar levels
• Unpredictable, unreliable appetite
• Strength drop-offs

And much more. These are but a few of the “health issues” that many attribute to damn near anything except poor sleep. And of course, there’s no shortage of pills, powders, and potions with marketing that claims to “solve” each issue (with this one weird trick!).

C’mon now. You don’t need a potion brewed by Getafix (the druid from Asterix and Obelix comics). You don’t need to turn into a pill-popping junkie to reduce (and in some cases, eliminate) your headache frequency. And you sure as shit don’t need a superfoods-only diet, detox tea, or whichever fat burner is “hot” right now.

For dramatically improved quality (and depth) of sleep, greater, faster progress in the gym, and to take a load of “health problems” off your shoulders, all you need is to try The Candle Protocol.

 Photo credit: Chalermphon Kumchai © 123RF.com

The Candle Protocol

Your nightly slumber shouldn’t be an afterthought, a “nice-to-have,” or something you pay attention to only when you feel like it.  Getting high-quality, and enough, sleep needs to be a priority.

Now, I know some of you reading this have kids, a family, and jobs that will fight tooth and nail to derail even your best-laid plans to improve your sleep. To join the legion of writers who have borrowed Bruce Lee’s most swiped quote of all time:

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

I include this quote because the steps and routine I’m going to lay out for you below aren’t the only options you have. For each step of The Candle Protocol, I’ve explained why it’s part of the routine, which will leave clues for how you can adapt this to better suit you.

To use step three in The Candle Protocol as an example, I recognize that marijuana is illegal in many places, and CBD oil might be hard to come by. But the purpose of their use is to help clear my head and activate my PNS (parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for “rest and digest” mode). To achieve a similar end, you could try yoga, meditation, reading, journaling, or going for a short walk.  The method matters less than the end you achieve.

All right, enough rambling. Here’s The Candle Protocol, my method for having an amazing slumber each night, and waking up each morning refreshed, recharged, and ready to go.

1. You need to turn your bedroom into The Bat Cave.

The darkness is entirely due to supporting your body’s biological circadian rhythms and natural melatonin production.  For the uninitiated, melatonin, while not essential for sleep itself, does result in better quality sleep during production, meaning you want to make sure your pineal gland is firing on all cylinders and producing melatonin at the right time.

Unfortunately, the lives that many of us lead are in direct opposition to supporting healthy, regulated melatonin production: lights on high into the late hours of the night, and hours spent staring at screens held inches from our face.  This matters because your melatonin production is directly affected by the light your body is exposed to. Too much and you’ll throw off your body’s rhythm and inhibit melatonin release at the time you need it most.

Thankfully, the two-fold solution is simple. First, your bedroom needs to become a cave at night: blackout blinds, doors closed, lights off, and screens out of the room. If you want a sure-fire recipe for near-instant sleep, read a book by candlelight for 10 to 15 minutes while lying in bed. You’ll be snoozing before you finish your chapter.  Secondly, setting yourself up for proper melatonin release starts a few hours before you go to bed. As the sun goes down, in keeping with your biologically ingrained circadian rhythms, so should the lights in your home. Personally, once it’s dark outside, I light a few candles (see the second item on this list), keep my light usage to a minimum, and dim the bulbs when I can.

Photo credit:  Marian Vejcik © 123RF.com

2. Whip out your scented candles.

Lighting a candle is simple, soothing, and bloody fantastic. All you need to do is get a scented candle (ideally something you love the smell of), and light it up as the sun falls and the lights in your home dim. Between its soft, warm glow, the literal warmth it gives off, and relaxing scents wafting through the air, I’m yet to find anything more relaxing or conducive to an incredible slumber.

And, it gets better. If you “stack” your scented candles with the next three ingredients, you’re going to sleep like you’ve had a chloroform-soaked rag held over your face.

3. Implement therapeutic use of marijuana.

(Note: this is a grey area in terms of legality, research-backed evidence, and individual effect. I live in a part of the world where you can buy weed like you do alcohol. This section is not a blatant recommendation. This is a glimpse into my beliefs on the subject, my own experience in using it therapeutically, and how it may help you.)

There is a difference between using marijuana to chase a high and using it for a specific effect. This section is about the latter.

I’m gonna level with you: I support using THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) and CBD oil (cannabidiol, the other non-psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) to relax, clear your mind, and get a sound night of sleep. Marijuana has a legion of health benefits, sleep being one of many, that remain largely untapped thanks to its “grey” political status and checkered history.

With a slew of articles on the subject in the works, I’ll keep this simple and to the point (for now):

• Consider that marijuana is illegal in many places, access may be hard to come by, and that you are responsible for doing your due diligence and research on this subject.
• The strain you choose matters. For the purposes of sleep, I suggest either an indica or indica-dominant hybrid. Master Kush, Grape God, and Purple Candy are three such indica strains that I’ve used to great effect.
•  Your delivery methods are endless (joints, vaporizers, oils and tinctures, edibles, etc.). Your best bet is to experiment with a few, find what you like, and stick with that.
•  If you don’t want any of the psychoactive effects, CBD oil is a great option. CBD reduces pain and inflammation, helps to eliminate anxiety, relieves nausea, and soothes your joints.
• Keep in mind that this may not work for you. Part of what makes the use of marijuana so hazy is the huge variation in effect from person to person. Alas, the only way to know for sure is to try. And that is a conversation you need to have with yourself. Weigh the potential risks versus the benefits and make an informed decision.

If you have no interest in exploring alternative options for sleep support, step six in this article outlines a number of effective, proven, over-the-counter supplements.

4. Sip on some herbal tea.

Tea, much like coffee, is something I believe has more benefits than we give it credit for — especially when it comes to relaxing, promoting recovery, and winding down at night. Best of all, your options are endless.

You want something herbal. It should go without saying that caffeine in the hours before bed isn’t going to do you any favors. I lean towards chamomile tea, which has legitimate relaxative and restorative properties, or a mint tea to support digestion. One to two cups after your last meal, while you go about the rest of your evening, won’t let you down.

Photo credit: Kichigin Aleksandr © 123rf.com

5. Finish setting the mood with soft music.

If you’ve got the eyes to hear and ears to smell, you’ll see that there’s a trend emerging. Much of what goes into creating an amazing night of sleep involves “setting the mood.” Think about it: Dim, warm lighting. A calming drink. Sending your mind elsewhere. Relaxing and restorative activities.

Each of these plays into creating an optimal sleep environment, and you can put the icing on the cake by putting on some soft, light music in the background. I prefer romantic Latin classics or tropical, chill house music.

6. Use smart supplementation.

I know I spoke out against magic pills and powders above, but there are some legit supplements that can help you improve your sleep (these should be assessed on an individual needs basis). A few of these include:

• Valerian Root
• Ashwagandha
• Melatonin
• Theanine
• Phenibut

These will all work, and absolutely help improve your sleep, but they are not necessary and should be brought into play to amplify, not replace, everything else in this article.

So, to review, here are your keys to sleeping the best you ever have:

• Transform your bedroom into a cave.
• Light up a scented candle.
• If you feel so inclined, light up a joint or have a small pot brownie.
• Brew some herbal tea.
• Set the mood with soft, relaxing music.
• Take advantage of targeted supplementation.

While each of these six steps has a compounding effect (meaning they work best when done together), you can still see great results from using each in isolation. If leaping straight to using all six steps seems like a stretch, start with one or two that you know you can do each night.

Train hard and sleep deep. If you’ve got 60 seconds, I’d love to hear what your sleep routine is. Leave a comment below with yours.

Hack Your Internal Clock for Improved Sleep Quality and Sport Performance