Does Eating Turkey on Thanksgiving Day Make You Sleepy

Millions of Americans enjoy their traditional Thanksgiving meal each year, then settle in to watch a Detroit Lions NFL game or participate in a stimulating political debate with their families, only to discover that they are unable to keep their eyelids open. They appear to have taken some sort of medication.

According to a common theory, turkey contains a lot of tryptophan, a naturally occurring substance that makes you sleep for a lot of the time. But Kent Vrana, the Elliot S. Vesell Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine, who has spent his entire career researching the chemical, asserts that eating a cheeseburger and a platter of black or white bird flesh both have an equal chance of making you sleepy.

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What is Tryptophan

Tryptophan makes you more likely to develop large biceps than the impulse to go to sleep. It is one of the 20 amino acids used by the body to create the proteins essential for building muscle. “99.9% of the tryptophan we take in is used to form the structures in our bodies,” Vrana added.

Humans utilize a little quantity of tryptophan to manufacture chemicals called neurotransmitters, which let the cells in their brains communicate with one another. Serotonin, the feel-good hormone in the brain, is made from tryptophan, which is also an anti-depressant. And then a far smaller part of that serotonin is transformed into melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone.

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Does Turkey Contain More Tryptophan

“All meats contain tryptophan,” Vrana said. “It’s a myth that turkey contains more.”

Even with stuffing and cranberry sauce, your Thanksgiving turkey does not contain more tryptophan than a roast of wild boar.

The serotonin-melatonin-producing abilities of tryptophan appear to be the source of the scientific mistake that gave rise to the notion. However, because they are in such minute quantities, they do not render you unconscious. However, like the meal from which it originates, the tryptophan turkey narrative has stood the test of time. It comes up in sitcom plots and is discussed over dinner. On occasion, even the pharmaceutical sector has joined. Drug companies began selling extremely high concentrations of tryptophan as a non-prescription sleeping aid decades ago.

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What Makes you Sleepy After Eating a Turkey

“Euphemistically, it’s called post-prandial depression,” Vrana said. “I’m a beef guy. So if I eat a steak or a great big burger – especially if I have a couple of beers with it – I’m going to get sleepy. But it has nothing to do with tryptophan.”

There might be an evolutionary element at work. Our predecessors hunted for their November meals hundreds of millions of years ago when responses to the question "What are you thankful for?" included "this loin robe" and "I was not devoured by a saber-tooth tiger this year." After a meal, their bodies automatically recognized that it was time to relax and refuel for the upcoming hunt or perhaps attend a Lions' game (which in those days was played by actual lions).

“There’s going to be a shift in your blood flow toward the gut because you’ve got a lot of work to do to digest all that stuff,” Vrana said. “Theoretically, you are not under any stress. And so, it shifts the neuronal signalling from the stress response.”

Your heartbeat slows down. While your body concentrates on digesting and receiving some much-needed slumber, you are at peace.

What could be more calming than to lie back in a cozy space with the people you care about while remembering wonderful times?

Or perhaps the Detroit Lions are that awful.

Source-Medindia