What Foods Make Us Feel Sleepy?

Honey

Honey is a superfood packed with numerous vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. But, despite its sugary sweet flavor, it actually makes individuals more sleepy than energized. Many swear by taking a spoonful or two of raw honey before bed to settle them down for the night. So, if an individual is trying to stay awake, it’s definitely a food to avoid. It’s all because of a series of chemical reactions triggered in the body and brain. Honey's natural sugars gently raise an individual's insulin, causing tryptophan to enter the brain. The tryptophan is converted to niacin, then serotonin, and finally to melatonin. As melatonin is the magical hormone that regulates sleep cycles, an individual's body will be feeling sleepy before they know it.

Get to know what kind of fruit can make individuals sleepy next.

Grapes

Individuals who have ever felt sleepy after drinking a glass of wine should know the feeling isn’t just coming from the alcohol. The Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture found evidence of melatonin in everything from the roots to the fruits of grape vines. Apparently, melatonin helps the fruit withstand the hot summer sun by preventing shriveling. The levels of melatonin fluctuate throughout the day and night, so the amount of it in grapes may even differ depending on the time in the season or the time of day the fruit was picked. Regardless of how beneficial melatonin may be for the grapes, for humans, it makes us just plain tired. That's just another reason to hold off on the wine until the end of the day.

Read about what foods with magnesium can increase tiredness next.