Turkey Doesn't Make You Sleepy: Healthcare Triage #5

While Thanksgiving is a time focused mainly on family, friends, and giving thanks, it's also the cause of a pervasive medical myth: that turkey makes you sleepy. Don't start with us about the tryptophan. Gah! We know about the tryptophan, and you're not helping your case.

It's your Thanksgiving duty to watch this video and share it with everyone you know. Help us beat down this lie! You owe it to the turkeys.

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John Green -- Executive Producer
Stan Muller -- Director, Producer
Aaron Carroll -- Writer
Mark Olsen - Graphics

[victors]

The sleepiness comes from a drop in blood brain sugar from the surge of insulin from your pancreas to use up the glucose that was broken down from your food.  Most of your blood is also directed to your gastrointestinal system for digestion, leaving less to your muscles and 'slowing you down'.  Same thing happens to everyone around 1pm.... right after a big lunch!

[FranticCashew]

IDK if anyone has ever told you this but your voice is very soothing. Thats a great quality for a pediatrician.

[tubelover]

I knew it!! I swear I've been telling my mom since I was 7 that I wasn't sleepy because of the turkey. "I'm sleepy cause I ate a lot." "No, your sleepy because you just had turkey." Damn it mom!

[ex-nerd]

Mythbusters did a pretty in-depth segment on this (probably around last Thanksgiving).  Convinced me.  Than again, as a mostly-vegetarian who still gets sleepy after a large turkey-free Thanksgiving meal, it's always been pretty clear that the turkey isn't that much of a factor in making people sleepy.

[Crystalvampire]

Why is this time of year frustrating for me? Because as a Canadian all the Thanksgiving commercials cause me mass confusion. "I thought Thanksgiving was last month? Oh right. America." 

[Cross]

Hey, Dr. Caroll! If you'd like to get back on the topic of healthcare, i'd like to hear you discuss the problems surrounding the overuse of anitbiotics, and the increasing prevalence of resistant bacteria. Several prevalent doctors have called it "A societal problem on the scale of climate change", and i'd like to see it discussed here.

[swehunter]

In the northern part of Sweden we have a word for this phenomenon "Paltkoma".
The sleepiness caused by a big meal

[zizkazenit]

A commercial for Emergen-c played before this video. Can you talk about megavitamins and the science (or lack there of) behind them?

[donfolstar]

My case of Not Wanting to do the Dishes has reached stage 4. Doctors say I only have several more decades to live. Won't someone please help?

[lugosky]

I can see how people related sleepiness to turkey. During thanksgiving dinner the main dish is the turkey, and also people tend to overeat. And when we overeat we tend to get sleepy. Most people does not overeat as much as they do on thanksgiving, therefore building association.

[Maymer]

As a Brit I've never heard of this "turkey makes you sleepy" thing, is this really such a thing??? It seems so silly. In my family we just say that if you're sleepy, you ate and drank too much.

Then again, we have roast dinners really regularly so there's that

[oddEvan]

Mythbusters addressed this last year: they ran a trial with turkey, with a substitute with the same number of calories, and with a smaller meal. TL;DR: the calories put you to sleep at thanksgiving, not the turkey.

(to the Mythbusters isn't science crowd: I saw a control group and an isolated variable; meets the high school/casual definition of science to me!)

[nolanthiessen]

"Most people don't eat [3/4 pound of turkey] in a sitting."
*shifty eyes* I've never done that either....

[MPythonGirl]

I don't get drowsy after thanksgiving dinner; I get cold. Then I'll curl up under a blanket and snooze (not nap) because I find it the best way to warm up after a big meal. (The best way to warm up when hungry is to *move*.)

[TheSometimesEpic]

This video will be viewed many times at my Thanksgiving table. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!

[nandom]

So if you take a partial dose of a sleep aid does it still make you sleepy?

[sclair]

I have never heard of this before. Is this actually a widely believed thing in the US? 

[boyesfm]

 I'm vegetarian and feel ridiculously sleepy after our Christmas meal (English) and need to lie down. Also happens after other huge meals.

[LuckyMarketGameplay]

Ever since I was a kid I've heard this, never knew it wasn't true. No reason to question it I guess when jokes about it are commonplace around turkey day.

[OSILVEROBULLETO]

I get ridiculously sleepy after eating a meal... It's sad really.