Random musings: How To Sleep Well On Thanksgiving

Today's blog post is based on a blog post by Dr. Michael Breus.

You’d think everyone knows how to sleep well on Thanksgiving, and why they are sleepy.

It’s estimated that over 700 million pounds of turkey will be gobbled up this Thanksgiving!

Hopefully, you’ll eat your portion (or perhaps a plant-based substitute) surrounded by the people in your life that matter the most to you. Afterward wolfing down yams, gravy and other goodies, you might find yourself getting a little drowsy.

Thanksgiving is maybe the only major holiday where sleep is an expected part of the celebration. After the feast, relatives retreat to the various recliners and couches to watch the football game but instead drift off to sleep. Traditionally, this post-banquet snooze has been attributed to the tryptophan in the turkey. However, the turkey and its tryptophan need to be officially pardoned. They aren’t to blame for the Thanksgiving food comas.

I'd always heard that tryptophan was the culprit. But if it's not, what is?

Tryptophan is an amino acid that the body uses to produce serotonin, a neurotransmitter that’s also an essential precursor for the sleep hormone melatonin. However, turkey typically doesn’t contain more tryptophan than red meat, pork or fish. You’d have to eat roughly five pounds of turkey in order to get about one gram of tryptophan! Most people eat less than a pound of turkey at Thanksgiving.

My friend Deb Bixler has the following recommendations for the amount of turkey to be served:

Turkey Tip:
What size whole turkey should I buy, you ask?
Figure on 1 1/2 Lb turkey per person if you want leftovers or 1 lb turkey per person if you do not.

So, what is the culprit?

However, it’s the carbs, overeating (Digestion takes energy!) and the alcohol that drive the holiday naptime, not the turkey.

Now that the turkeys have been vindicated, there are a few ways that Thanksgiving can disrupt your sleep at night. First, there’s the possibility of heartburn and indigestion, plus caffeine, alcohol and more. Here’s a few tips for sidestepping some of the big sleep risks on Thanksgiving.

How to Avoid Holiday Indigestion:

Eat your food slowly.

Schedule the meal earlier.

Avoid spicy, fatty and tomato-based foods

Instead of heading for a prime snoozing spot on the couch after dinner, stay on your feet.

Caffeine and alcohol are also big culprits in disrupting your Thursday night's sleep:

Caffeine: Not only can caffeine be a trigger for indigestion, it can also keep you from getting the sleep that you need. I generally recommend that people stop drinking caffeine at 2 p.m. That means, skip the after-dinner coffee and avoid other foods and beverages that have caffeine in them like chocolate, soda pop and ice cream.

Alcohol: If you’re sensitive to heartburn or indigestion, alcohol is another trigger. Like caffeine, alcohol disrupts sleep even if it doesn’t upset your stomach. It dehydrates you and makes it hard to reach the deeper stages of sleep. You’re also likely to have to wake up to go to the bathroom.

Avoid any alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime (I've written about it here).

Stress is also a big sleep disruptor:

It’s not just the food and drinks that can cause you to lose sleep. Keep in mind that stress can run high around the holidays, especially when it comes to the topic of politics. November is election season, and Thanksgiving seems to be the time that families get together and argue about the issues facing our nation.

Although 2019 was a Presidential election off year (but, hey, who knows what kind of emotions local elections might have dredged up), 2020 will most likely be a doozy. People have been so stressed out by the political division in this country, that they are losing sleep, according to a recent study that is.

Researchers surveyed 800 U.S. citizens and found that 40% of respondents said that politics was a large source of stress in their lives, and 20% even claimed to have lost sleep over politics. The stress even transcends party lines, so it’s likely you’ll finally have this in common with your cousin who is on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

Since the majority of people are stressed out by politics, it might be a good idea to designate the dinner table a “politics-free zone.” That way, your family can sidestep uncomfortable conversations and everyone can go home and have a good night’s sleep without the added stress.

Check out his blog post for more information.