Why do we get car sickness and how to avoid this feeling

Car trips are never easy, but they’re much more unpleasant when your daughter repeatedly vomits in the backseat because she’s nauseous. I know, because that’s what happens whenever I drive more than an hour with my 8-year-old.

She’s now practiced enough to vomit neatly into a plastic bag, but I feel for her every time that happens and wonder what I can do to alleviate her problem. This summer, we took several trips and tried many remedies: changing her position in the car, acupressure bracelets, bizarre-looking anti-sickness goggles, or Dramamine.

Some things worked better than others, and during each experiment, I wondered why motion sickness — nausea and vomiting induced by riding in a car, boat, plane, or using VR devices — occurs in the first place.

Why are some people more susceptible than others? Are there research-backed cures or is trial and error really the best approach? I interviewed four motion sickness experts for answers.

The causes are not clear

Most experts believe that people get sick when the parts of the brain responsible for maintaining the body’s balance receive conflicting sensory information, often because of a difference between what they’re feeling and what they’re seeing.

Normally, when you turn your head, take a step, or initiate any kind of movement, your brain receives signals from your inner ear about how you should feel.

When you are sitting inside a car or a boat but feel the movement of the vehicle, your brain senses a sensory conflict and you start to feel sick. (Similarly, VR devices cause motion sickness because your eyes receive motion signals that your body doesn’t feel.)

Other experts, including Thomas Stoffregen, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, argue that the body’s inability to stabilize itself in movement plays a role.

Some researchers speculate that motion sickness evolved to protect us from poisoning. When our perceptual experiences don’t line up with expectations, “the brain says, ‘Oh, maybe I’ve been poisoned,'” said John Golding, an applied psychologist at the University of Westminster in Britain.

We then feel nauseous and begin to vomit ostensibly to clear these potential poisons from the body.

Prevention is the best cure

One important thing I’ve learned from my interviews is that it’s difficult to alleviate motion sickness once it sets in completely on a particular trip, so it’s far better to try to prevent it from happening or take steps to relieve it once you’re starting out.

The best way to prevent motion sickness is to look at the horizon when you’re moving in a car, boat or plane — this helps eliminate sensory mismatch because your eyes see you’re moving, Golding said.

(However, you don’t want to focus on the ground or the trees running past, because this movement is too fast to provide a sense of stability.)

When we moved my daughter’s booster seat from the side of the backseat, where her view was from my headrest, to the middle, where she looked through the front windshield and saw the car moving, the likelihood of her feeling sick. decreased.

Golding also suggested trying to keep your head still, but added that it’s always a bad idea to read or look at screens because you focus your eyes on something that isn’t moving.

Some medications can help prevent motion sickness, such as those containing dimenhydrinate, meclizine, or scopolamine. (All of these drugs cause drowsiness, and scopolamine can also cause blurred vision and trouble urinating.)

Golding emphasized that these remedies work best when given 45 to 60 minutes before travel begins, and that they don’t work as well after motion sickness has set in. That’s partly because once you feel sick, your digestion slows down and drugs are less likely to get into your system, Golding said. (Also, if you vomit, you will throw the drugs out.)

He added that some research suggests that focusing on breathing can also prevent motion sickness. Before a trip, he suggested practicing deep breathing and keeping your breathing slow and steady, and trying to do this while traveling as well.

Some treatments work better than others

I get seasick from time to time—especially on boats—and I like the acupressure bracelets that pinch a point on my forearm, three fingers above the wrist joint.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, this pressure point plays a role in regulating nausea. But research suggests that these bracelets typically don’t work any better than a placebo, said Andrea Bubka, a psychologist at the University of Saint Peter in New Jersey.

That said, the placebo effect can be strong, and Golding emphasized that if these treatments work for you or a family member, it’s best to keep using them. (I certainly will, although they didn’t work for my daughter.)

As for the weird anti-sickness goggles recommended to me by a friend, there’s still no scientific evidence on how well they work, but Bubka said he’s heard that they relieve motion sickness symptoms because their circular rims contain a liquid that moves as you go. your body moves, providing an artificial horizon.

However, when my daughter used them while watching her iPad on a road trip, she still got nauseous so I’m not convinced (but maybe we should try them when she doesn’t have her iPad).

When it comes to the effects of ginger, experts disagree. Stoffregen said eating ginger chips or mints before a trip can help prevent motion sickness, as can drinking ginger ale, as long as it contains the real plant and not artificial flavoring. But Bubka said he hasn’t seen good research confirming benefits.

Translation by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves