Does turkey really make people sleepy?

It is true that turkey has a chemical that makes you tired, but the chemical needs an empty stomach to work, and since you ate the turkey, you don’t have an empty stomach.

I have heard differing reports. It is clear that turkey does contain L-Tryptophan which can cause sleepiness in a sufficiently high dose. Some say that you do not receive enough to matter from ingesting turkey, and that people feel sleepy after eating unusually large amounts of food.

No, but the other 7500 calories you consume would contribute to exhaustion.

Tryptophan in turkey does contribute to sleepy feelings.

Like @gailcalled said, the tiredness is mostly from all of the food you’re digesting.

See? Two schools of thought, just like I toljda.

I hate turkey and Thanksgiving, don’t get me wrong I love how I celebrate it I just hate the food. Shocker? I know!

Unless you eat a LOT of turkey, it shouldn’t really make you sleepy. Its more or less all of the carb youre eating.
(Thanks, food network for teaching me this crap.. :P)

The answer is NO (as has already been said). The New York Times (and others including the venerable snopes website) have covered this myth. As stated in the NYT:

“This myth stems from the fact that turkey contains tryptophan, an amino acid found in proteins and essential to the human body. Scientific studies show that sleep and mood are affected by tryptophan.

However, turkey does not contain an exceptional amount of tryptophan. Chicken and beef contain about the same amount, and pork and cheese contain more tryptophan per gram than turkey. Because turkey is consumed with other foods, absorption of tryptophan from turkey is minimal, noted the authors. The myth likely stems from the fact that everyone feels drowsy after eating a large meal because the body is using energy to digest food and blood flow and oxygenation to the brain decreases. Large meals in the United States usually occur around Thanksgiving and Christmas, holidays during which turkey is often served.”

I think Mythbusters tested this and they found out that while it’s true the chemical is present there isn’t enough of it to do anything.

There may also be the inescapable urge to avoid all those relatives with hidden agendas, grudges, dietary bellicosity, and forty-year-old feuds (about what no one can remember).

If you hate football, then a nap serves the same purpose.

NYT did a better reprise yesterday of this theme.

A lot of scientists seem to think it does.. sadly I’m an anomaly for many such scientific claims. For me there is no discernible difference pre-turkey and post-turkey… same goes with aspirin, many other medications, and even caffeine.