why does LETS GO RIDE BIKES

September 15, 2008 8:54 PM

why do i get motion sickness only on specific forms of transportation?

on a train and an airplane i can read for hours with no problem. in a car or a bus, forget about more than a quick two minute glance. why is this? the train is often more bumpy than the cushioned bus ride, but still causes more reading nausea (i get *no* other motion sickness symptom, even on crazy bus rides, just when reading). this is more of a curiosity than a solve-my-problem question, i don't think its affected my life that much.

posted by yonation to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

I noticed I can read (=keep my head down and not look outside) without any problems on airplanes and trains. the same is not true for me on busses and in cars, where quick changes in direction like going around curves or weaving through traffic immediately makes me feel nauseous. I need to see outside and get my level (like I would look at the horizon when on a boat to fight sea sickness).

an airplane as well as a train predominately moves in one direction - they do not accelerate, decelerate or change direction as quickly as a car does. while you are going over a bump, you are still maintaining your general movement on a train. the car on the other hand is much lighter and responds far more rapidly to control adjustments. your body has to deal with much higher forces.

how are you on rollercoasters?
posted by krautland at 9:12 PM on September 15, 2008

how are you on rollercoasters?

Motion sickness doesn't bother me there. It's more a problem of keeping a grip on the book.
posted by scope the lobe at 9:15 PM on September 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

I am the same - get carsick when I try to read in road vehicles, less so in trains, not at all on planes. The motion just isn't the same across the board.
posted by orange swan at 9:19 PM on September 15, 2008

Two things to keep in mind:
1. You feel acceleration, not velocity.
2. Motion sickness is often, but not always, caused by a disconnect between senses. Typically, that would be something like your eyes seeing no motion (because you're reading or whatever) and your ear feeling acceleration.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 10:37 PM on September 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

On an airplane or train, the ride is fairly straight-forward, with no sudden curves or hills. In a car, the driver may change lanes suddenly, turn a corner sharply, etc. If you're concentrating on the road, you will automatically anticipate these directional changes. If your nose is in a book, you're disconnected (as Last said) from the outside terrain and your mind doesn't have time to prepare for the shift in direction.
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:41 PM on September 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

What about boats? I can get "seasick" even if I see tv footage of a boat, with the horizon going up and down. I can't stand it. However, really small, fast boats are ok, as well as huge cruise liners.

Sometimes I can read in buses/cars, sometimes it gets to me and it's impossible. The "disconnect between senses" seems like a good hypothesis.
posted by neblina_matinal at 2:05 AM on September 16, 2008

That "cushioned" bus ride may actually have slow up-and-down oscillations that are similar to what may make one sick on a small boat. There are probably two different sources of motion sickness being mentioned here.

First, there's the disconnect between the senses caused by the inner ears feeling motion while the eyes are looking down at an ostensibly stable environment.

(Many people including me get motion sickness from some video games, with my eyes seeing a lot of movement that's out of sync with what my fingers are doing on the controls, while my inner ear feels nothing.)

Second, there's probably that slow up-and-down business that may not bother fishermen and the Coast Guard, but often bothers the rest of us.
posted by JimN2TAW at 6:26 AM on September 16, 2008

I like these answers, but I other than LastofHisKind, I still dont have an inkling about the disconnect between reading and all other things, which do not make me sick (nor do I get seasick on slow up-and-down waves, on rollercoasters, etc. If I had across the board sickness, I would understand. But why reading so specifically?
posted by yonation at 7:01 AM on September 16, 2008

I think the reading/video game triggers it because your eyes are trying to focus on something small and specific while your brain is having to make all sorts of tiny adjustments to compensate for the motion of the car or train.

You didn't ask, but the last time I had a long bus ride I took ginger pills before and during the trip, and was able to read and play video games the whole time with no problem. I usually get oogy after just a few minutes on buses.

For Krautland: as for roller coasters, I'm the one on the ground holding purses and cell phones.
posted by bink at 7:22 AM on September 16, 2008

It definitely is an interesting question as I suffer from motion sickness quite a bit as well but it seems inconsistent.

Using LastofHisKinds points: In a car or bus you have far more instances of acceleration so far more chances of your senses (body, eyes, inner ear) sending conflicting messages to your brain. Furthermore it helps me if I focus my eyes in the distance suggesting it is better if I keep my eyes movements limited instead of making fast changes in fixation while reading. So in bus the body tells the brain no to little movement, inner ear detects movement when accelerating, eyes say movement, no movement constantly while reading. While if the eyes would focus on what movement is happening the distorted picture built by body and inner ear senses would be more consistent in the brain.

Interesting hypothesis on Wikipedia's entry on Motion sickness. Motion sickness being a defense mechanism against poison ingestion. Poison might make your eyes go funny so if you make fast movements with your eyes the brain might be more likely to conclude that you ingested a poison that needs to be cleared..
posted by Mrs Mutant at 9:19 AM on September 16, 2008

hey! what could possibly go wrong if you read a book while riding a rollercoaster?
posted by krautland at 5:46 PM on September 16, 2008