The mystery of motion sickness - Rose Eveleth

Although one third of the population suffers from motion sickness, scientists aren't exactly sure what causes it. Like the common cold, it's a seemingly simple problem that's still without a cure. And if you think it's bad on a long family car ride, imagine being a motion sick astronaut! Rose Eveleth explains what's happening in our bodies when we get the car sick blues.

Lesson by Rose Eveleth, animation by Tom Gran.

[wingwaabuddha]

The passenger being more sick than the driver always seemed obvious to me. The driver knows what their next move is going to be, if however briefly, so they can perceive whats coming next and adapt. The passenger doesn't necessarily know what turn is next, the speed, the brake etc.

[Eccentric-YURR]

NEW THEORY: For me it's just when I'm in a car when my motion sickness occurs, its the smell of the car. When I take the train, I'm fine, since the air is fresh, I don't feel nauseous. And as for traveling through the ferry, same thing, I don't feel sick, the air hits me and I feel free. Do research on the other sensory parts like the nose.

[AshleyBTibbetts]

She spoke so fast I got motion sickness.

[mangalori]

When I was in Okinawa, Japan, with a couple of friends we decided to go whale watching.
We went in this really tiny kinda crappy boat and the sea was very rough that day but the company doing these tours was determined to show us that whale we were promised (despite stating in the contract that we might not actually see any).
So we ended up circling around for hours and hours being thrown around by the waves. Our fellow (Japanese) passengers got sick almost right away and started diligently throwing up in these plastic bags provided.

Seeing this of course made us pretty sick in turn. A German girl in our group got so sick in fact that she stayed permantly seated at the open part of the boat so she could throw up over the rail into the sea, but this meant she also got these huge waves of cold water dumped on her again and again.

I on the other hand tried to keep my lunch down by looking at the horizon and singing 50s pop songs like a broken jukebox. This lasted for about 3 hours (by then I was feeling so miserable I would've given anything to be taken back to shore) until finally the crew cried out we'd found our whales. I had to break away my gaze from the horizon so I could get a look at them and as soon as I caught a glimpse of tail I had to go join my friend at the rail to deposit my stomach content in the ocean (poor whales). Immediately afterward though I felt much better and I actually enjoyed watching the whales splash about.

After that we finally headed back to shore, the Japanese crew still beaming that they had after all managed to give us what we had payed for even if it meant making every single passenger and even one crewmember seasick. We were worried for our friend though, who was absolutely soaked and so pale and weak we feared she might pass out. When asked how she was feeling she exclaimed in a shaky voice: "That was fun you guys. Let's do that again sometime...". Being the sweet person that she is, she was ofcourse being totally serious. Afterwards we got a taxi to the hotel, put her to bed (after a nice hot bath ofcourse) and had a good rest ourselves.

That was my whale watching adventure, I felt like sharing it here. Sorry it's a bit too long. And if you're reading this, thanks for getting this far. :)

[emilyperry]

She just kept talking faster and faster and faster! Omygawd....

[cormacnimo]

Slow down with your voice, you are giving me a motion sickness.

[alexalget]

I've always had motion sickness to the point of throwing up multiple times per ride.  I've tried all sorts of medications and other solutions(like chewing gum) but they didn't work.  This was a big problem when I was doing a lot of traveling on a plane.  The only thing that worked for me was eating candied ginger every hour or so.  This made me not only stop throwing up, but I felt almost no nausea at all.  So if you are plagued with motion sickness, try having a good dose of ginger(1 or 2 small pieces of candied ginger was all it took for me to feel better).  Good luck!!

[vynjh]

I don't think It's such a Mystery why passengers get more motion sick than the drivers like they say at 1:45 . I mean, If you are driving, your eyes are glued to the road, and you rarely see the inside of your car except for the dashboard occasionally, but for the most part, your sensory information is AGREEING with each other. your eyes are detecting motion, and so are your ears. For a passenger however, your eyes are not glued to the road, and look at the stationary car more often, which is why they probably get motion sickness more often. This also probably explains why motion sickness is easier to get in the back of the car than the front, because in the back, you can see most of the inside of the car, so most of the stuff you see looks stationary, therefore, your sensory info is disagreeing, while in the front seat, there is not much of the car to look at, so it is harder to get motion sickness, but you can still get it since you are not constantly looking at the road like the driver is. This also explains why they recommend looking at the horizon, so your eyes can detect that you are INDEED moving, so therefore, your eyes and ears are no longer disagreeing. I mean, isn't this the logical reasoning one should come to?

[grimordwow]

I only get motion sickness if I try to read on a car\bus. On the other hand I can read without any issues on trains, boats and even planes. Even trying to find an object inside a bag on a moving car is enough to make me sick, for some reason.

[kawser-shaon]

If the motion sickness is caused by the mismatched sensory signals, then it can be reduced by shutting down one sensor and letting the brain follows the other sensor. Such as u can shut down ur eyes and follow ur ears! I apply this method when I feel motion sickness and it works for me.

[RideswithChuck]

Until I turned 30 I was never bothered with motion sickness. I watched the Mythbusters cable TV program that dealt with motion sickness. They found that pure ginger was a cure. I tried it and now I can ride a Tilt a whirl again. Ginger isn't perfect, for me it's only good for about an hour. That isn't enough for a 5 hour boat ride. Even in a situation like this though, the ginger pill settles the stomach after the bout ride was over.

[latemporis]

I always got motion sickness when in a car. It's the worst feeling. But I found out opening the windows, listening to music and closing your eyes helps a lot, made my life easier.

[Manish-okyd]

Smell of the vehicle, the vibration of it, shape of the seats and other things trigger motion sickness to me ... Most of the time its just the mind forcing u to feel all these even if u try to avoid and trick your brain... I usually put a earphone in my ears, lay my head to the corner of seat or on window and fix myself there without changing my position and try to sleep as fast as possible till the end of journey.... This trick has saved me multiple times...

[ChaosZhang]

I was bothered with motion sickness until about 20 years old. I didn't really like taking big bus, especially on winding roads in mountains, cuz it makes me feel sick. And I had no idea how to deal with that situation, due to remedies aren't always efficient on every single person. That is, it depends. Luckily, I find my way. Getting some sleep moves attention from mix-up sense, then I feel more energetic when arriving destinations. (may work for bus passengers)

[juiceofjuice]

I find that everyone down here couldn't keep up with her, but in my opinion, yeah she was going a bit fast, but I could still keep up =I

[manavthakur]

I get motion sickness only in certain cars, and my anxiety issues make it even worse. I would start sweating heavily, my body trembled and I couldn't stop feeling dizzy.

[Moonfrog]

1:00 actually you can only feel acceleration, not speed itself.

[FatimaHussain]

It makes a lot of sense that the passenger would experience more motion sickness. The driver is looking out the window so the eyes and inner ear are in agreement.

[azoutlaw]

When I was little we lived in Big Bear Lake, CA. When we had to travel the area of victorville, san bernadino, redlands I would get car sick. Around 20 years later I was on vacation with my aunt and uncle and we were driving in the same area and I got car sick! About 15 or so years after that I started getting migraines. My doctor asked me if I had motion sickness when I was a child. I was astonished that she asked that (that's why she's the doctor) question. Anyway, that's my little anecdote.

[ahmedyaaqoub]

The motion sickness spoils our travels.. What you have said about the mismatch ed sensory signals is right, but I think what make it hard is that it becomes psychological when we have already bad experiences about motion sickness, I mean, just the smell of the car can trigger the sickness. I think the efficient way to prevent it to be a driver..