# Cause of car sickness **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 15, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942 "2015-08-15T20:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jeanne1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aca169/32.png) [@Jeanne1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeanne1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/1 "2015-08-15T20:57:33Z")
In 1921, scientist Robert Barany published an article, explaining how people get motion sickness in automobiles and on trains. It is called “railway nystagmus” or “optokinetic nystagmus.” It results when passengers look out the side windows at the passing scenery. Their eyeballs – imperceptably – flick back and forth as the trees, telephone poles, etc., are whipping by. This result is nausea and vomiting. The cure is to not look out the side windows at the passing scene. Look out the front window (like the driver is doing). Drivers never get sick, because they have their eyes on the road. On family car trips, Mom and Dad stash the kids in the back seat. Dad is probably driving and Mom is looking out the front window. The kids are forced to look out the side windows at the scenery. They get optokineitc nystagmus and they have to throw up. Keep the children from looking out the side windows. The drugs foisted on the kids by doctors claim to combat carsickness. What they do is make the kids drowsy and they shut their eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/2 "2015-08-15T23:45:40Z")
I hate to contradict you, but I’ve gotten motion sickness in a car I was driving. Now granted, it wasn’t as bad. I had to pull over and stop and walk around the car a couple of times. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/3 "2015-08-16T02:15:32Z")
> [@Jeanne1](#): > > The drugs foisted on the kids by doctors claim to combat carsickness. What they do is make the kids drowsy and they shut their eyes. The drugs “foisted” on people are antiemetics, which include an antihistamine called [Dimenhydrinate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimenhydrinate) ([Dramamine](http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-8645/dimenhydrinate-oral/details#)). A side effect of antihistamines is often drowsiness (I know Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) knocks me out for about 12 hours and keeps _me_ drowsy a full day). Dramamine, however, is taken specifically for anti-nausea, not drowsiness. But I get it. Big Pharma = Evil Bad. By the way, this is the cause for [motion sickness](http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/ear-infection/tc/motion-sickness-topic-overview): > [@](#): > > You get motion sickness when one part of your balance-sensing system (your inner ear camera.gif, eyes, and sensory nerves) senses that your body is moving, but the other parts don’t. Car sickness, air sickness, and sea sickness are all caused by the same thing, which isn’t always eyeballs flicking back and forth. Original Column: [Why Do People Get Carsick?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1429/why-do-people-get-car-sick) As expected, SDStaff **Hawk** got it right. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/4 "2015-08-16T02:22:43Z")
Also, [nystagmus](http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/nystagmus) is not directly correlated to motion sickness. > [@](#): > > Railway nystagmus is a physiological type of nystagmus. It happens when someone is on a moving train (thus the term railway) and is watching a stationary object which appears to be going by. The eyes slowly follow the object and then quickly jerk back to start over. Railway nystagmus (also called optokinetic nystagmus) is a type of jerk nystagmus. This phenomenon can be used to check vision in infants. Nystagmus can also be induced by fooling the semicircular canals. Caloric stimulation refers to a medical method of testing their connections to the brain, and therefore to the eyes. Cold or warm water flushed into the ear canal will generate motion signals from the inner ear. The eyes will respond to this signal with nystagmus if the pathways are intact. > [@](#): > > There are many causes of nystagmus. Nystagmus may be present at birth. It may be a result of the lack of development of normal binocular fixation early on in life. This can occur if there is a cataract at birth or a problem is some other part of the visual system. Some other conditions that nystagmus may be associated with include: > > - Albinism. This condition is caused by a decrease in pigmentation and may affect the eyes. > - Disorders of the eyes. This may include optic atrophy, color blindness, very high nearsightedness (myopia) or severe astigmatism, or opacities in the structures of the eyes. > - Acute labyrinthitis. This is an inflammation in the inner ear. The patient may have dizziness (vertigo), nausea and vomiting, and nystagmus. > - Brain lesions. Disease in many parts of the brain can result in nystagmus. > - Alcohol and drugs. Alcohol and some medications (e.g., anti-epilepsy medications) can induce or exaggerate nystagmus. > - Multiple sclerosis. A disease of the central nervous system. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/5 "2015-08-16T03:44:32Z")
My ex and daughter get motion sickness from reading in the car and it has nothing to do with side windows. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2015, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/6 "2015-08-16T05:13:47Z")
> [@Jeanne1](#): > > .Keep the children from looking out the side windows. The drugs foisted on the kids by doctors claim to combat carsickness. What they do is make the kids drowsy and they shut their eyes. One of those “anti-nausea” drugs is meclizine hydrochloride. I’ve taken it, and it doesn’t make me drowsy. ---
**Author:** ![vanda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vanda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanda)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-car-sickness/727942/7 "2015-08-22T23:10:56Z")
I agree with all but one of the responses. Looking at anything other than the horizon gives me very bad motion sickness. Interestingly, this completely disappears to the point when I can even read on a bus, if I do not eat anything whatsoever that day.