Four Facts You Didn’t Know About Motion Sickness

Motion sickness is a feeling of nausea caused by visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive stimuli that lead the brain to perceive that the body is being moved. Motion sickness can be triggered by riding in a car, boat, or train; playing video games; reading in a moving car or plane; using an amusement park ride like the tilt-a-whirl or roller coaster; watching others play video games; or even reading this sentence while moving around too much!

Medications and Motion Sickness

Motion sickness can also be worsened by medications. Some types of medication may intensify motion sickness. Some medical conditions may also cause or worsen motion sickness. For example, people who have migraines are more likely than others to get car sick when riding in a vehicle or on a boat or ship. Another condition that may affect your susceptibility to motion sickness is hyperthyroidism, which causes sensitivity to light and sound as well as irregular heartbeat and sweating.

Some people develop motion sickness symptoms after being sick such as with colds; these people frequently experience extreme dizziness when they go back on board ships or airplanes after having been confined for some time at home due to their illness.

Pregnancy and Motion Sickness

You probably know that morning sickness and motion sickness are similar, but what you might not know is that pregnancy can cause both. In fact, about half of all people with motion sickness also have morning sickness or pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting.

Why? It’s thought to be because your body’s hormones are changing and can become more sensitive during pregnancy, so it takes less motion to trigger symptoms like dizziness or nausea. This could explain why many pregnant women experience car sickness as well. Riding in the car involves more movement than walking on land, so it may take less movement to trip up this part of your body when you’re expecting!

Reading In Moving Vehicles

Reading in the car or on a plane can make you feel worse even if you don’t normally get motion sickness. Reading books or looking at the screens of phones or tablets can create what’s known as the “phantom visual effect,” which is a feeling that the object you are looking at is moving when it isn’t. If you are already feeling queasy, this can be enough to push your body over the edge into full blown nausea and vomiting.

If reading in your car or on a plane makes you feel dizzy or nauseous, it may be time to try an alternative method of entertainment. Like listening to music has been shown to reduce motion sickness symptoms!

Motion Sickness In Females and Children

Children and females are more likely to experience motion sickness. The reason behind children being more sensitive to motion sickness is that children’s sensory systems may not have full developed yet. While females are more sensitive to motion sickness due to hormone levels, spikes in estrogen levels may leave woman more susceptible to motion sickness.

Motion sickness is a very common condition that affects people of all ages and walks of life. Motion sickness is caused by the conflict between what your eyes are seeing and what your body feels like doing. While there’s no sure cure for motion sickness, there are some things you can do to help prevent it from happening or at least make it more bearable when it does happen!