Happy Thanksgiving everybody! If you’re like me, you probably ate entirely too much at Thanksgiving dinner. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. Spending time with your family and eating a ton of food is part of the fun of Thanksgiving. The purpose of the holiday is to be thankful for all that we have and all that’s to come, but, for many, the food aspect of the day has become a very integral part. So, you sat down with your family and ate an obscene amount of food, what do you do now?
My sister is partial to what she calls food naps. Of course, I never truly appreciated the food nap until recent years. When I was little I used to be too focused on playing to appreciate the food nap. But now, I’ve realized that there is something special about curling up after a big meal and sleeping it off. Turkey is filled with something called tryptophan. Now, tryptophan is an amino acid that often leaves you feeling sleepy. Add this to the sleepiness that already takes place when you are full and boom! You have the perfect scenario for a nice food nap.
If you eat your Thanksgiving dinner at a later time frame, then I wouldn’t recommend taking a food nap. This could cause you to be unable to sleep later on since your sleep schedule will be affected. However, if you eat an early Thanksgiving dinner, such as one around two or three pm, then a food nap can be a nice little break from all the crazy family time! Just make sure that you don’t nap for longer than a half hour or else you’ll risk waking up feeling groggier than when you started. So, next time you overindulge while eating, go ahead and take a little nap afterwards, you’ll wake up feeling less full and more satisfied.