Latest news with #motionSickness
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Why do I get car sick and my boyfriend doesn't? I asked experts
The other day, I tried to read an email on my phone while in the backseat of a moving car. Almost immediately, I was overwhelmed with nausea. Next to me, my boyfriend was happily scrolling through news articles. He tried to show me a headline, but I was too busy staring out the window, breathing deeply and trying not to vomit. This happens basically any time I am in a moving vehicle that I am not personally piloting. It's a little embarrassing. But I'm in good company: approximately one in three people are considered 'highly susceptible to motion sickness'. What exactly is motion sickness, and why do some people experience it so much more than others? We asked experts. Motion sickness is a generic term that encompasses all sorts of travel sickness, including sea sickness, air sickness and car sickness, says Dr John Golding, professor of applied psychology at the University of Westminster, in London. But you don't need to travel to experience its unpleasant symptoms, which can include nausea, vomiting, burping, drowsiness, dizziness, headaches and blurred vision. When the Lumière brothers first screened a motion picture for the public in 1895, some people in the audience started feeling dizzy and sick, says Golding. This is known as 'visually induced motion sickness'. Science isn't entirely sure what causes motion sickness, experts say, but the most widely agreed-upon explanation is the 'sensory conflict theory'. Your body uses visual stimuli, proprioception (the body's ability to perceive itself in space) and the vestibular system (structures inside the inner ear that help you maintain a sense of balance) to sense where your body is and how it is moving. Usually, these three mechanisms are in sync. But when one of them isn't – say, you're reading a static page in the car, but your vestibular system still senses that you're moving – this sensory conflict confuses the brain. 'This neurological tension is what triggers common symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and vomiting,' explains Dr Safia Debar, a general practitioner and executive health physician at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London. In the case of the Lumière brothers' first audiences, their vestibular systems and senses of proprioception told them they were still, but their eyes told them they were moving. Today, many people experience this sort of visually induced motion sickness when using virtual-reality headsets. One of the most common misconceptions about motion sickness is that the strength of the movement determines the severity of the reaction, says Golding. But people don't tend to get motion sickness when they're bouncing up and down on horseback; that is a 'higher frequency' movement, says Golding. Slower-frequency movements, like the rocking of a ship at sea, or the swaying of a bus, are more likely to result in motion sickness. So why can one person read endlessly in a car while even a quick glimpse at a phone turns another person green? A number of factors seem to influence one's proneness to motion sickness, says Dr Behrang Keshavarz, senior scientist at the Kite Research Institute and professor in the department of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. One is age: motion sickness tends to peak in children between the ages of 8 and 12. 'Adults are usually better than kids with motion sickness,' says Keshavarz. But that's not true for everyone, he clarifies. Research suggests people assigned female at birth are more likely to experience motion sickness than those assigned male at birth, says Keshavarz, though no one's quite sure why. Genetics may also play a role, says Golding, adding that studies indicate motion sickness might be 50-70% heritable. Some individuals may also be better at adapting to strange new motions than others, suggests Dr Thomas A Stoffregen, emeritus professor of kinesiology at the University of Minnesota. 'Some people are 'naturally coordinated' and can learn new motor skills quickly,' he says over email. 'Others (like me) are klutzes and take forever to learn new movements.' The latter are more at risk for motion sickness, he argues. Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion One thing is certain: motion sickness is not a sign of weak character. (I would like to see this printed on the little airplane vomit bags I so often end up breathing into during landings.) 'It's not about being delicate or anxious,' says Debar. 'Some people are simply more sensitive to motion.' About half of novice astronauts get space sick during training, Golding adds. 'They're very fit, very highly motivated and not weak-willed,' he says. I nod. Sitting in the back of a Kia Sorento is a lot like going into space, I tell myself. There are two approaches to dealing with motion sickness: behavioral and pharmacological. Behaviorally, a number of easy measures can help. Sit in the front seat of a car when you can, keep your eyes on the horizon, and avoid reading and screens, says Debar. She also notes that ginger has some natural anti-nausea effects. Pleasant music, fresh air, nice smells and a generally pleasant ambiance may be able to distract you, says Keshavarz. He also suggests car passengers copy the movements of the driver. Drivers rarely get motion sickness because they can anticipate the movements of the car and lean into turns, for example. 'If you mimic what the driver does, that helps,' Keshavarz says. Unfortunately, the most effective way to combat motion sickness is also the least pleasant: habituation. In other words, doing the activity over and over again until it doesn't give you motion sickness anymore. 'This is by far the most effective countermeasure,' says Golding, who used it to help desensitize Royal Air Force pilots to air sickness. 'It doesn't have side effects, but it's very time consuming and can be stimulus specific,' he says – meaning that habituating to car sickness won't necessarily help you with sea sickness. Over-the-counter anti-nausea medication can be effective, experts say, but they often cause drowsiness. Transdermal patches such as Scopolamine are also helpful for up to three days, but can take six to 10 hours to take effect. Timing is important for such medications, says Golding. Even pills might take 30 minutes to an hour to take effect. And you must take them before you start to feel sick, because once you start to experience motion sickness, your stomach goes into gastric stasis, meaning it is no longer emptying its contents into the gut. 'That means you might have taken the pill, but it's not going anywhere,' says Golding. Finally, you can always 'vote with your feet', says Golding. 'Avoid situations where you get sick.'
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Apple's Innovative iPhone Feature For Cars Is Coming To The Mac Soon
Vehicle Motion Cues is the name for an accessibility feature for the iPhone to help dissipate motion sickness. This year, it's coming to the Mac, so it could help you work on your laptop as you drive without feeling nauseous. Vehicle Motion Cues coming to the Mac this year. The new feature was revealed by Apple on Tuesday, May 13, as part of its celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (which is Thursday, May 15, this year). The original version was announced in May 2024 and arrived in iOS 18. I simply can't read anything when I'm a passenger in a car without feeling sick almost immediately (and there's a different but obvious reason why I don't do it when I'm driving). This feature was designed to help. Apple explained at the time, 'Research shows that motion sickness is commonly caused by a sensory conflict between what a person sees and what they feel, which can prevent some users from comfortably using iPhone or iPad while riding in a moving vehicle,' the company said. The solution was Vehicle Motion Cues which puts animated dots on the screen edges to represent changes in vehicle motion, designed to reduce this sensory conflict. The iPhone recognizes when you're in a moving vehicle and responds automatically. Apple has an animated version of this here. This year, Apple has announced that it will come to the Mac as well — which almost certainly means the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as you're unlikely to be working on an iMac in your car, aren't you? This time, Vehicle Motion Cues will come to Mac, alongside new ways to customize the animated onscreen dots on the iPhone and iPad, as well as the Mac. There were so many accessibility updates announced by Apple (details and analysis of the big hitters can be found here) that the new Vehicle Motion Cues was a long way down the extensive list. This also includes two more motion-oriented changes: support for large text for CarPlay, and updates to Sound Recognition so a driver or passenger with low hearing can be notified of the sound of a crying baby in the car, as well as horns or sirens outside the vehicle. Apple hasn't specified exactly when these updates will land, just that they'll be this year.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Mum shares plaster trick which she swears prevents motion sickness for kids
Motion sickness can quickly make a cruise holiday more of a nightmare than a relaxing break. And nausea can be even worse for kids who might struggle to understand why they feel unwell. But, according to one mum, there's a 'simple trick' that could stop a child suffering from motion sickness. In a video posted to Instagram, @ filmed herself sticking two plasters over her son's belly button. The mum places one plaster vertically over the belly button before sticking another over the top horizontally. She then shows her son playing happily in the ship's swimming pool without any signs of motion sickness. In the caption, the mum says: 'This simple trick helps prevent motion sickness in kids. 'Just place a band-aid [plaster] over their belly button. It really helped us on the cruise.' The mum then showed her child happily enjoying the rest of his cruise holiday But while the video got over 57,000 likes, not all the commenters were convinced that the trick really worked. Many thought it was more likely the child was feeling something of a 'placebo effect'. 'Kookathome' writes: 'Sticking a bandage on the belly button to prevent motion sickness is not scientifically proven. It likely works through the placebo effect.' 'Redalertison' adds: 'It's the placebo effect'. However, one Instagram user says they found that the method works for them. 'Nisaupik' writes: 'It works for me - I've been using that method since I was 12.' The NHS recommends focusing your eyes on a fixed point in the distance, breathing fresh air or drinking ginger tea if you're suffering from motion sickness.
