Feeling sleepy after specific meals

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Eating roast turkey is often blamed for the sleepy feeling that follows. The reason cited is that it contains the substance L-tryptophan. But other foods have more, for example, egg white, cod or pork chops, or sea lion kidney.

To understand why some meals make you drowsier, you need to know how the body and brain absorb nutrients.

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Why Insomnia Happens and What You Can Do to Get Better Sleep

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We're all familiar with that silly image of the person who resorts to counting sheep when they just can't seem to fall asleep. But when you're the one who's been tossing and turning all night, insomnia is no laughing matter.

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Creating a sleep-inducing environment

Turn the temperature between 60 and 72 degrees.
Turn off the lights. Artificial light suppresses your body’s production of the sleep hormone melat...

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Experts Reveal What Triggers Emotional Eating And How To Control It

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For Ernest Hemingway, it was oysters. For Nora Ephron, it was mashed potatoes. For countless recently dumped film and television characters, it's ice cream. Humans have been eating our emotions for as long as we can remember. But that doesn't make it a good idea.

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Eating Distract from Emotions

We often associate eating with relief or even excitement, and it’s only natural that we’d reach for those same feelings when we’re worried or sad.

Why we choose comfort food

Comfort foods don’t tend to be healthy. We want cake or pasta or chips when we’re emotionally eating. We have emotional memories around certain foods, which are more likely to involve your grandma’s lasagna than a salad.

But after we eat for emotional reasons, we’re replacing our original feelings with the emotions that arise out of eating.

Comfort food

We associate comfort food with positive memories.

Think about all the happy and comforting memories you have involving food. Maybe your family used to celebrate occasions with a trip to the ice cream shop, or maybe your mom or dad used to soften the blow of a bad day with macaroni and cheese. When you’re feeling rejected or anxious today, eating one of those foods is an instant connection to that soothing time.

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10 Best Ways to Increase Dopamine Levels Naturally

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Dopamine is an important chemical messenger in the brain that has many functions. It's involved in reward, motivation, memory, attention and even regulating body movements ( 1, 2, 3). When dopamine is released in large amounts, it creates feelings of pleasure and reward, which motivates you to repeat a specific behavior ( 4, 5).

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Dopamine Functions

Dopamine is an important chemical messenger that plays several important roles in the brain and body:

It influences moods and feelings of reward and motivation: When&nbs...

Increase dopamine levels naturally

They are generally well regulated by the body, but there are a few diet and lifestyle changes you can make to boost your levels naturally:

Eat lots of protein
Eat less saturated fat
Consume probiotics
Exercise often
Get enough sleep
Listen to music
Meditate
Get enough sunlight