Motion sickness is a horrible thing to have to deal with. It occurs when the inner ear and the eyes send conflicting signals to the brain. This happens when you are in a car, airplane or boat, but it can happen on amusement park rides or some sort of simulators.
Symptoms Include:
Headache
Nausea
Cold sweats
Dizziness
Fatigue
Pale Skin
For those who do not get the sensation of motion sickness, consider yourself lucky. Those with motion sickness have to deal with some obstacles while traveling, but there are ways to cope and help subside the symptoms.
If you are one of the unfortunate travelers that get motion sick, you are not alone. Women are more prone to getting motion sickness than men and children ages ranging 2-12 are also more vulnerable to it.
Studies show that there are many factors behind which individuals get motion sick, psychological and physical. Check those out here.
Car Sick
There are ways to help you cope with motion sickness while on the road. Use these tips to help you on your next trip.
Focus on a fixed point
Since your sight is messing with your inner ear movements, as mentioned above, you start to feel queasy. Try looking out into the distance and focus on a fixed point such as a building or a mountain. This way your eyes can detect you are moving and can sync up with your ear’s movement.
Drive or Sit in the Front
The driver has control of the car, therefore knows when the bump or turn is coming. If you sit in the back seat, you do not have sight of the road ahead of you. To reduce car sickness try driving or sitting in the passenger seat to have a clear view of the road.
Hydrate
Drinking lots of water is always important, but when you are traveling it is important to drink even more. This way you will not add dehydration to your other list of symptoms.
Flying
The same thing happens to your brain signals as riding in a car, a miscommunication between your inner ear and eyes. There are similar and different coping mechanisms for flying.
Pick the right seat
If you know you start to feel sick on a plane, try picking the right seat. Studies show that sitting in a wing seat or at the front of the aircraft has much less turbulence than the back of the cabin. Also choosing a window seat helps, this way you can look out at the horizon just like the car scenario.
Eat Light
Keeping your body fed is very important while traveling, but when you are in the process of flying or driving, try not to eat anything too heavy. Stay away from greasy, fatty and sugary food. Eat light throughout the day and make sure to bring snacks on the plane or buy some little snack meals on the plane. The lightness on your body will help reduce your chances of having an upset stomach.
Air flow
If you start to feel sick, the worst thing is when you start to feel hot. Make sure you have plenty of airflow while in your seat. There are individual fans above each seat, make sure to direct yours on you and maintain that air flow throughout the flight.
Ginger?
Who would have known? According to Dr. Stephen D. Ehrlich, ginger can help with motion sickness in certain travelers. Riders and flyers can take ginger tablets before and during the travel, eat some ginger candy or drink ginger ale. All are known to help certain passengers with their motion sickness.
You can conquer your motion sickness with these tips! Realize that it is a normal thing that can be prevented and treated with certain remedies. If you are taking SuperShuttle to the airport, request to sit in the front if you feel like you might get motion sick in the van. Thanks for reading! We hope this helps 🙂
