I don’t know why this just occurred to me, but I was thinking about how I have never heard of someone getting carsick if they are driving. I have never been really carsick myself, but sometimes after a long drive I do get kind of an unsettled stomach. This has never happened if I am driving.
I am wondering what the difference is. Maybe the key is to scan the road ahead like a driver, and not watch passing scenery? Or something else? Is it the motion of the car itself that makes people feel carsick?
I think your surmise is correct. I have a friend who gets carsick, but she is fine as long as she can see out the front window.
Perhaps it has to do with the passing scenery – things out the side window look like they are moving faster than things from the front window.
Perhaps it has to do with the motion of the car as well – particularly if you’re not looking out the window (such as when reading – which is the only way I’ve ever gotten carsick). This may be due to the body having no visual clues to movement, but the body can feel it.
Carsickness is motion sickness. It arises because your inner ear says you are moving, but your eyes (when they are fixed to a static object inside the car) says you are stationary. Your brain interprets this as something being wrong with your inner ear, in same way as when you think the room is spinning. So you feel ill.
You are unlikely to get this when driving because you are focused on the outside of the car and your eyes information agrees with your inner ear. Children are most likely to get car sickness because they see the least out of the window, are more encompassed by the vehicle due to their smaller size and they are least used to the experience. Others can suffer from it if they concentrate on something within the car that fools their brain into think they should be stationary. Such as a book.
Sea-sickness is similar. It’s not the physical movement that makes you feel ill. It is that the surrounding boat appears to be stationary, yet your inner ear, your balance, most definately feels to be in chaotic motion.
That makes sense. How do motion-sickness drugs or those acupressure treatments / bracelets work, then? How could they change the disparity between what you see and the motion? Or are they simply providing anti-nausea benefits (not specific to motion-sickness.)
How is it that I get carsick if I should read in a stationary-but-on vehicle, such as a car in Park? I realize that the car is vibrating - could that be it? I’ve always gotten carsick very easily, even in adulthood. Interestingly, some cars are much more nauseating than others, independent of who’s driving. (If my father should drive my mother’s car with me in the back seat, I’m much less likely to get carsick than if he drives his own car over the exact same roads.)
I’ve also had the opposite problem. When I’m using a microscope for more than a couple of minutes at a stretch, I get ‘carsick’, probably because I’m seeing motion but not feeling it. I know a few people who actually take Dramamine before going on the scope to prevent this, but I haven’t tried that yet.
I once got seasick on a small fishing boat and they gave me the tiller and I recovered immediately. The only other time in my life I felt motion sick was when I was going through three months microfilm of a newspaper. I wonder if that would have happened if the film scrolled vertically. My wife cannot read on a bus without feeling queasy. But she doesn’t get carsick even when I am driving. So it is a funny business.
Futile Gesture’s answer is excellent. I am highly susceptible to motion sickness, even in my late, late, late, late 30’s , and I have to insist when riding in the car with others that I sit in the front seat. I rarely get carsick in the front seat if I keep my eyes on the road in front of me, get plenty of fresh, cool air in my face, and don’t do something foolish like try to read a book/magazine/newspaper, etc. In the back seat, all bets are off.
In a boat, the only chance I’ve got is if it’s a small powerboat moving at top speed and I face forward with the wind in my face. On a bus or train, I can’t sit in a backward-facing seat. Airplanes are tricky - I have no control over the situation, but I usually don’t get sick unless I’m too warm or it’s food-related (although after about 3 hours on a plane I feel the overwhelming urge to chew my way through the fuselage to get the heck off the damn plane!).
But I never get carsick if I’m driving, no matter what (not that I’ve tried to read a book while driving, mind you).
I used to get carsick when I was learning to drive, but I was swinging the car around the corners. Only lasted until I got used to it and my driving ability improved.
Oh, you should avoid backward facing seats on trains and buses. They’re nasty for motion sickness.
Thanks for the great explanation on motion sickness, but what is behind those of us who don’t get it? I can read, sit in the back, sit in backward-facing seats, whatever. Am I just lucky or is there something going on with my inner ear?
, and I have to insist when riding in the car with others that I sit in the front seat. I rarely get carsick in the front seat if I keep my eyes on the road in front of me, get plenty of fresh, cool air in my face, and don’t do something foolish like try to read a book/magazine/newspaper, etc. In the back seat, all bets are off.