Hopefully you had a big, delicious Thanksgiving this year! But did you have a hard time staying awake after lunch? Most people did, and almost everyone blames tryptophan. But is tryptophan really the main culprit? What even is tryptophan, anyway? Tryptophan is an amino acid that our bodies use to help make both vitamin B3…
You’ve probably wondered, as you struggled to keep your eyes open amidst all the Thanksgiving Day football & family chatter, “is it the turkey that’s making me sleepy”? Here’s the chemistry involved: turkey contains L-Tryptophan, an amino acid involved in sleep; your body uses that to produce a B vitamin called niacin, which generates the…