# Why is my house pitching like the boat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826 "2010-03-26T01:58:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/1 "2010-03-26T01:58:44Z")
I very recently went on a 7 day cruise to Vanuatu, and some rough weather made me feel pretty ordinary for a few days. But eventually thanks to drugs and some ‘getting used to it’ I enjoyed the rest of the cruise. However upon getting back to dry land, for a solid 3-4 days after, my previously stable house would occasionally give a little shimmy and a buck much like what I experienced on the cruise ship. I can’t figure out why? I know seasickness is linked with the disapirty between what your eyes are telling you is moving and what you inner ear is telling you is moving, and I believe some of the seasickness medications do their job by causing your inner ear fluid to thicken, so as not to ‘record’ the movement as much. Why would my inner ear suddenly decide to tell me that the house just lee-lurched half a foot? Some people don’t feel it all, and some who didn’t take seasickness pills feel it, so I figure it can’t be some aftereffect of the pills. Anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/2 "2010-03-26T02:16:07Z")
I’ll add that though I never get seasick or take pills for that, I certainly notice a mild version of this effect after I spend more than about 24 hours at sea. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/3 "2010-03-26T02:17:14Z")
This always happens to me - and I never take pills. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/4 "2010-03-26T03:09:48Z")
Google on _sea legs land legs_ and you’ll find some info. One poster [here](http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/archives/archive53/newposts/450/topic450254.shtm) said it was “an adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex” (and gave some further explanation). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/5 "2010-03-26T03:13:38Z")
Do you live in Santiago? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/6 "2010-03-26T03:32:36Z")
I always have this after I’m on a ship. I kind of like it. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/7 "2010-03-26T04:04:32Z")
It sounds like Vertigo. You need to see a doctor. It is treatable and an inner ear problem. If you have been home a week you should have gotten rid of the sea legs. Good Luck! ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/8 "2010-03-26T05:12:14Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Do you live in Santiago? Luckily enough no. I’m on one of the most geologically stable places on Earth 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/9 "2010-03-26T05:14:25Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > Google on _sea legs land legs_ and you’ll find some info. One poster [here](http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/archives/archive53/newposts/450/topic450254.shtm) said it was “an adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex” (and gave some further explanation). Thanks for the link. The only things I was able to find in my searches were many other people confirming that they had similar sensations. > [@Perciful](#): > > It sounds like Vertigo. You need to see a doctor. It is treatable and an inner ear problem. If you have been home a week you should have gotten rid of the sea legs. Good Luck! It lasted about 4-5 days or so, but is gone now. So all good. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/10 "2010-03-26T05:28:08Z")
Have you hear of being land sick. You are use to the movement your brain tells you things are moving as normal. It is a false sence. I get it every time I went to sea. Even after a cruze ship. ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/11 "2010-03-26T13:00:30Z")
I suffer from land sickness in a bad way, but strangely, I never get sea sick (or, at least, thankfully have never been in a storm yet bad enough to be sea sick). Put me in an ocean storm, I’m fine. Take me off a dingy on a breezy day and put me on dry land, and I want to spew technicolor. Oddest thing. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/12 "2010-03-26T13:08:13Z")
The first time I went to sea, it was for some weekly ops on a U.S. Navy cruiser. Unlike cruise ships, warships (especially cruisers, destroyers, and frigates) roll constantly because they are narrower and don’t have stabilizers. (Cruise ships and warships will pitch in rough seas to about the same extent.) You learn to adjust your balance in sync with the pitching and rolling or you lose balance and fall over. After a week at sea, I distinctly remember walking down the pier, still swaying back and forth as I unconsciously shifted my balance. You get the same thing when you get off of a cruise ship, but to a lesser extent. Most modern cruise ships have stabilizers to reduce the rolling. (Warships don’t.) BTW, the worst possible vessel out there in terms of rolling is a surfaced submarine, because the hull cross-section is cylindrical, so there is much less righting moment. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-house-pitching-like-the-boat/533826/13 "2010-03-29T14:05:24Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I always have this after I’m on a ship. I kind of like it. Ayup. For several days after returning from a caribbean cruise in '03, I found my house to be moving around just like the OP’s. Pleasant, and it did ultimately resolve on its own.