What is it about the contents of a "typical" Thanksgiving dinner (with all the trimmings) that makes you want to lie down on the couch and sleep through your favorite college football game?

This?

I read the “Turkey meat and drowsiness” section. After my doctor translates it into English for me, I’ll be able to understand it.

Thanks for the link!

Tryptofan. It makes you sleep. There’s a lot of it in turkey.

@daloon: According to my link, it actually says that it’s more the carbs than the tryptophan, which is the same amount in turkey as other meats for the most part.

Tryptophan is the commonly accused culprit, but I think mostly it’s the overeating. Gluttony will get you every time.

How about the booze and the relatives? Or dinner at 4:30?

Parse this:” The fluorescence of a folded protein is a mixture of the fluorescence from individual aromatic residues. Most of the intrinsic fluorescence emissions of a folded protein are due to excitation of tryptophan residues, with some emissions due to tyrosine and phenylalanine; note! di-sulfide bond also has appreciable absorption in this wavelength range.”

Cool! Wavelengths in my guts! (I know, I know, not really, I was just being a smart ass)

@Gail. You want a lay explanation for that? The scientific discussion of amino acid fluorescence is so out of place in that Wikipedia article it makes my head spin. All that section is saying (which is irrelevant to the falsehood that tryptophan causes sleepiness), is that some amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) have more fluorescence when exposed to light than others.

@Shi: I was hoping for a joke when I saw that you were typing.

@Gail. So sorry to disappoint. Here’s Snopes on the tryptophan myth, and for a (less reputable website), check out emedicine’s take on turkey and sleepiness.

Aha! Booze and carbs (and Uncle Artie.)

There is also the odd rituals of holidays that disrupt our normal routines or rhythms.

Well, I stand corrected about tryptophan. Apparantly it can make you sleepy, but only on an empty stomach. However it seems that the research is inconclusive about the rest of the meal being responsible for sleepiness. I might be. But maybe not. Booze and carbs are definite culprits, but it seems the evidence is not yet conclusive.

Which means I don’t know. Ack!

@Jack; Try being responsible for the bulk of the meal and a house full of guests. I promise that you will not get sleepy (or watch football.) After 40 years of cooking a turkey, I still can’t get the timing right or the white and dark meat to be both juicy.