Merve Ceylan is a dietitian and health writer with four years of experience writing for companies in the nutrition and health industry. Nick Blackmer is a librarian, fact-checker, and researcher with ...

Hint: It's probably more than the bird making you sleepy. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that’s a vital building block for protein in the body. There are 20 known amino acids, nine of which ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Yup, pretty much everyone has made the Thanksgiving joke about tryptophan leading to couch naps, but I’m ...

Every Thanksgiving, myths of the quasi-magical powers of tryptophan rise again. There’s the turkey/drowsiness myth: Eating lots of juicy turkey meat supposedly makes people feel tired because it ...

If you’re feeling tired, irritable, have brain fog or trouble sleeping make sure you’re paying attention to tryptophan. This time of year, we usually associate tryptophan with napping after ...