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PrintTravel Tips with Jacline > Motion sickness
Motion sickness can occur when the sensory inputs concerning body position contradict what is expected. It can be provoked by abrupt changes in movement, such as occur during bumpy rides, turbulent flights and rough seas. It can also occur when one is exposed to moving visual scenes while the body is in a relatively fixed state.
What are the symptoms of motion sickness?
Nausea and vomiting are the most familiar symptoms of motion sickness. They are generally preceded by a general feeling of unwellness characterized by pallor and cold sweats. Other people yawn, suffer a frontal headache, feel sleepy or experience rapid breathing.
What causes motion sickness?
Motion sickness occurs when your body feels movement that your eyes have not detected. This is the case when driving in a car. However, the inverse can also occur, when your eyes perceive motion that the body does not feel, for example, when watching an IMAX movie or a flight simulator. Our vision is telling our brain that there is movement, but our inner ear is telling our brains that there is no movement.
Vertigo, motion sickness number one
Vertigo is characterized by loss of balance, which often has a benign origin: motion sickness. We've all experienced the unpleasant feeling of loss of balance: your head spins, your stomach churns and sometimes there is buzzing in your ears.
Dizziness originates in the inner ear, which controls our balance. To be in balance, our brain requires three types of information: the position of our body in space (provided by the muscles, for example), the position of our head (provided by our vision), and information on our head movements (provided by the inner ear). When we're in a means of transport, one of these information sources may not be sent correctly. Then we have a false sense of being displaced in space, which is vertigo. It's this accumulation of contradictory messages reaching our brain that causes motion sickness.
What factors lead to motion sickness?
The majority of people get used to the contrast between what their eyes are perceiving and what their body is feeling. Motion sickness is often much less frequent after repeated exposure to the same stimulus. Car sickness is generally a problem only for children. People travelling in a plane for the first time are also more at risk of suffering motion sickness than those who have flown before.
The incidence of motion sickness varies by stimulus and the sensitivity of the subject: it can be much less than 1% in a large plane, and close to 100% on rough seas in an emergency situation. Boats are the means of transportation most likely to induce motion sickness, followed by planes, cars and trains.
It is possible to reduce or prevent symptoms connected to motion sickness.
Fix your sight on a stable portion of the landscape. Avoid looking at an object in motion. Look through the window and focus on the horizon. In the case of young children, use a car seat so they can see out the window. Sit in the front seat of a car.
Play observation games, looking outside.
Do not read while traveling; don't even flip through a magazine.
Reduce the severity of motion. Ask the driver to take curves gently. Avoid accelerating and decelerating and other abrupt movements as much as possible. Adopt a "cruising speed." The more stable the speed, the more your body will adjust to the road.
Open a vent or source of fresh air if possible.
Take regular breaks and keep active. Get out of the car and walk for a while.
Don't stay confined to your cabin. Go up on the deck, breathe some fresh air and watch the motion of the horizon.
Choose a cabin with the least possible turbulence. On a ship, those in lower level cabins near the center of a ship generally experience less motion than passengers in higher or outer cabins.
If you're subject to, or afraid of, motion sickness, choose a bed aligned with the ship (feet towards the prow).
Try to choose a seat where you will experience the least motion, away from the tail. The middle of an airplane over the wing is the calmest area of an airplane.
When seated, rest your head comfortably on the headrest to prevent sudden movement. If possible, recline your seat with your legs extended on the footrest.
Keep two things in mind: hydration and blood circulation. At 10,000 meters up, the air is very dry, and our bodies need continual hydration. It's recommended that you drink 1 liter of water per 4 hours of flying time. Don't think alcohol can replace water... just the opposite!
To avoid an upset stomach, the direction of your seat is very important in train travel. Sit as if you were in a car, i.e., facing the front, toward the direction you're moving. Facing backwards and seeing the landscape going past you in reverse can throw off your perception.
Medical research has not yet proven the effectiveness of popular folk remedies such as ginger, herbs and homeopathy. These remedies may work for some people, but their effectiveness is anecdotal.
Medications are available to fight motion sickness. Talk to your pharmacist about choosing the right drug depending on the means of transportation and your medical profile, symptoms, age, etc. For example, some drugs can cause sleepiness, except sympathomimetic agents. If you're going to be driving, even if it's just to the airport, be sure not to replace one unwanted effect with another.
Stretch out to reduce the movements that cause travel sickness (abrupt head motions, for instance).
Don't set out on an empty stomach. Fasting doesn't prevent the problem. On the other hand, avoid excess consumption of food, drink and alcohol for at least two hours before travelling. Strong food odors and fatty foods can cause nausea.
Drink something sweet from time to time when travelling: clear soft drinks or fruit juice.
Avoid confined atmospheres.
Stay warm.
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