When it comes to the holidays, many of us look forward to a good old-fashioned turkey dinner with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. When the pumpkin pie makes its appearance though, we find ourselves yawning, cursing the turkey for our after-dinner lethargy. But is the poultry really the culprit behind this urge to doze off?
Turkey contains an essential amino acid called L-tryptophan, which has been recognized for its sleep-inducing effects. Tryptophan can be metabolized into serotonin and melatonin, neurotransmitters that exert a calming effect and regulate sleep. However, you’d probably still feel tired after a big holiday meal even if you eliminated the bird. In order to make you drowsy, L-tryptophan needs to be taken on an empty stomach, without any other amino acids or proteins. Therefore, the tryptophan in turkey probably won’t cause the body to produce more serotonin, as it isn’t the only food being consumed at a big holiday feast.
So if it isn’t the turkey, what’s making you drowsy? Most likely, it’s the entire meal. They’re often quite heavy—the average Thanksgiving or Christmas meal contains 3,000 calories and 229 grams of fat—and loaded with carbohydrates. To digest all that food, the body reroutes blood to the stomach. This causes sleepiness, as less blood, and therefore less oxygen, is being delivered to the brain.
That said, a midnight snack of turkey could be helpful to insomniacs. Nutritionists say that taken on an empty stomach, a serving contains enough tryptophan to induce the body to generate sleep-inducing amounts of serotonin.
