The tryptophan in turkey gets a bad rap every Thanksgiving. Here’s the real reason you’re so tired. The tryptophan in turkey gets a bad rap every Thanksgiving. Here’s the real reason you’re so tired. Following is a transcript of the video.
Dr. Daniel Barone: So the myth is that turkey has a lot of a chemical known as tryptophan, which is actually the precursor to melatonin. So people think that when you, around Thanksgiving time, when you have a lot of turkey, that makes you tired because of all the tryptophan that you’re eating gets produced into melatonin and then it makes us fall asleep.
That’s actually not true, the reason why we tend to be tired after we have a large meal of Thanksgiving is simply because of the amount of food that we’re having we have what’s called postprandial fatigue, which is basically after you’ve had a big meal your body goes into basically shutdown mode and sleep gets promoted.
That’s why that’s why a lot of other countries have siestas for this reason.
Tech: The turkey you eat at Thanksgiving doesn’t make you sleepy — a sleep expert explains why
