Is Turkey Really Knocking You Out? The Sleepy Truth Revealed! 🦃💤

Ever feel like taking a nap after Thanksgiving dinner? Turns out, turkey isn’t the only culprit behind your post-feast snooze fest. 🦃💤 Let’s uncover the real science behind that sleepy feeling!

Turkey has a bit of a bad reputation for making people sleepy, and it’s all thanks to tryptophan. 🧬 This is an amino acid, which is like a building block for proteins. Tryptophan gets converted by your body into melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate sleep. Sounds like an open-and-shut case, right?

Not so fast! While turkey does contain tryptophan, it’s not enough to knock you out on its own. In fact, other meats, like chicken, have similar levels of tryptophan, but we don’t blame them for our food comas. 🍗 What gives?

The real sleepy-time MVP is carbohydrates—you know, all the delicious stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pie that make Thanksgiving a foodie’s dream. 🥔🥧 

Here’s why: when you eat a lot of carbs, your body releases insulin, which clears other amino acids out of your blood, making it easier for tryptophan to enter your brain. Once there, tryptophan gets to work producing serotonin (the feel-good chemical) and melatonin, which team up to make you feel all warm, fuzzy... and ready for a nap.

But wait, there’s more! Overeating in general can make you feel tired because digesting a massive meal takes energy. Plus, if you’ve been sipping on wine or indulging in dessert (hello, sugar crash 🍷🍰), that adds to the sleepy storm.

By The Numbers

Here’s one for the next time you’re at a trivia night: Tryptophan levels in turkey are actually lower than in parmesan cheese. So technically, a cheese platter could be sleepier than your Thanksgiving turkey.

If turkey really made you that sleepy, grocery shopping after a deli sandwich would be downright dangerous.