Have you ever felt dizzy and nauseous on amusement rides and wondered what that feeling is? Motion sickness is a general sense of dizziness that occurs when one is travelling by car, plane, boat or train. For instance, when on an airplane, one can’t see the turbulence but the body can feel it. The body’s sensory organs send conflicting messages to the brain that causes dizziness, lightheadedness or nausea. Motion sickness is also known as travel sickness.
7 Common Symptoms Of Travel Sickness
Travel sickness generally upsets the stomach. A person with travel sickness could become pale, have a headache, or face trouble maintaining balance.
Other symptoms include:
- Dizziness and a cold sweat
- You might feel like you want to throw up
- Increase in saliva production
- Loss of appetite
- Pale skin
- Shallow breathing
- Fatigue
7 Must Follow Preventive Tips & Precautions For Motion Sickness
- When booking a trip, plan in advance. Ask for a wing or window seat if you are traveling by air. When on a cruise, ask for a water-level cabin and near the middle or front of the vessel. If possible, open up a vent for some natural air.
- Sitting in the front side of a bus or car, or driving yourself, also often helps.
- It is imperative that you get enough rest on the night before traveling. Dehydration and anxiety lead to worse outcomes if you are prone to travel sickness.
- Avoid eating a heavy meal and consuming alcohol before traveling. Spicy, heavy to digest food can make you feel sick.
- Do not sit facing the direction opposite to the direction of travel.
- If you are traveling in a car, keep the window open to get some fresh air.
- Ginger and peppermint are known to reduce the feeling of motion sickness. They have a calming effect on the stomach.
Effective Home Remedies For Motion Sickness
The condition isn’t contagious like a cold, and there are many home remedies for motion sickness.
1. Raw Ginger
Raw ginger, which has long been used as a traditional remedy to combat nausea, works. But it might also lead to thinning of the blood. Consult your doctor before using it.
2. Peppermint
Eating peppermint calms the body.
3. Change Your Position
Change your position or distract yourself when you first recognize travel sickness. This will help reduce the intensity of your symptoms. For some people, lying down makes a difference. For others, standing up works.
4. Face The Right Direction
If driving is not an option, always face the way in which the vehicle is moving. It may ease the detachment between your inner ear and the visual sense. Swap the rear seats with somebody sitting in front or lean your head against the headrest; this will help lessen your head movements.
5. Get Some Air
Get some air; switch on a fan or stop the vehicle and stand outdoors for a bit. If your mode of travel or the weather does not permit you to stop your vehicle, move the air vents towards yourself.
6. Eat Light Snack
Eat crackers. Eat a light snack to ease nausea. As foods that are greasy, acidic or heavy, are slow to digest, they might make your nausea worse. Plan in advance if the road halts on your trips mostly serve fast food. Other great snacks include bread, cereal, apples, bananas, and other grains.
7. Sip Some Carbonated Water
Have some carbonated beverage or water.
Sipping carbonated drink like ginger ale or seltzer-or cold water is another of the motion sickness remedies. Do not have beverages with caffeine in them; coffee and certain sodas which can cause dehydration and make matters worse. Other nice choices include apple juice and milk.
8. Distract Yourself
Distract yourself through music or conversation. Turn on the radio or indulge in a conversation with a friend to keep your focus off the way you’re feeling. This will help you distract yourself to feel better. Research reveals that this method helps reduce nausea among other symptoms associated with travel sickness.
9. Avoid Using Screens
Avoid using the screen. Those who develop travel sickness might face trouble reading books or texting on various devices. This is because there is a sensory detachment between the eyes and inner ear. Don’t focus on something up close as it makes the symptoms worse. Switch to audiobooks or music or maybe nap, to while away time.
Other Motion Sickness Remedies
1. Pressure Points
Along the wrist, there is a point for acupressure called the Nei Guan (P6) could give you instant relief. Put the three fingers-index, middle, and ring fingers of your right hand inside your left wrist, beginning under the arm crease. Your Nei Guan point is below your index finger, right in the middle of the wrist tendons. Apply pressure here on one or both wrists for about five seconds.
2. Aromatherapy
Certain scents, including lavender essential oils, also help. Peppermint essential oil has been used to lessen nausea in hospitalized patients.
Among several ways to use oils, diffusing has minimal risk for interactions. We suggest that you buy a portable diffuser for your travel plans and use a few drops of oil every session. The most recommended time to diffuse is an hour. Take sniffs from an essential oil bottle, or better even, use an essential oil necklace for more convenience.
3. Chamomile Tea
It has a soothing effect on the stomach as it reduces and relaxes the stomach muscles. In today’s times, you will get chamomile tea at almost all grocery stores. There are even online retailers, including Amazon. We suggest you steep tea before you go on your trip and store it in a mug to drink it when the need arises.
4. Liquorice Root
It helps soothe stomach acid irritation, pain due to stomach ulcers and even helps in the digestion process. It also helps ward off vomiting and nausea. You can buy lozenges online too.
Tips And Tricks To Beat Motion Sickness
- Stay relaxed. Focus on something. Take deep breaths or count backwards from 100. Close your eyes if that helps.
- Do not read unless absolutely necessary.
- Try getting a seat over the wing in case you are flying, an upper-deck cabin if you are sailing and a front-seat spot if you are in a car.
- Many experts suggest having black horehound, although its effectiveness has not yet been proven by science.
- For astronauts, pilots, or others who experience motion sickness frequently by virtue of their profession, the best solutions are cognitive therapy and biofeedback. Breathing exercises also help. Interestingly, these treatments work for people who feel sick only by thinking about traveling.
- Talk yourself down. Yes, you can actually do that. A study found that ‘verbal placebos’—simply informing the sailors they will not feel seasick—helps prevent seasickness. Before traveling, say out loud, “This time, I will not get carsick,” or other such pep talks.
- Use biofeedback and learn techniques for breathing.
- Desensitisation therapy also helps minimise or even cure travel sickness. Exposing oneself to brief spans of activities that cause motion sickness symptoms and then working up to longer time periods helps. If reading a book while traveling makes you feel nauseous, read it for five minutes and then close it. Repeat this routine several times and then increase it to ten minutes. With time, you will find that your body has gotten used to the routine!
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who is prone to motion sickness?
A. Children between the ages of two to twelve are most prone to suffer from motion sickness. Pregnant women too have a propensity of experiencing this type of inner ear disturbance. NASA astronauts have also experienced it. So don’t worry, this ailment is very common.
Q. Can motion sickness cause very serious health problems?
A. Though motion sickness can make you feel extremely uncomfortable and drained, it usually does not cause very serious health problems. Vomiting can sometimes cause severe dehydration, hence it is important to stay hydrated. Severe motion sickness might cause a feeling of dizziness for a few hours or even a day, it is important to consult a doctor for proper treatment.
Q. What if home remedies do not work for me?
A. If the home remedies for motion sickness do not work out for you, you can take frequently prescribed travel sickness medications prescribed by a doctor. Do not take any medicine without consulting a doctor first as it could cause some serious repercussions.
Q. Can you cure motion sickness?
A. There is no ‘cure’ for motion sickness, the effects of the condition can only be treated with medicines, therapies and other home remedies. Some precautions to avoid motion sickness include eating a bit of ginger before traveling (ginger is known to reduce the feeling of motion sickness), avoiding the consumption of alcohol and eating light meals before traveling.
Q. How long do the effects of motion sickness last?
A. The effects may last up to a few hours or a day at the most. If you still feel sick, consult a doctor immediately. Taking enough rest and drinking ginger ale helps to reduce the effect of motion sickness. Try to keep yourself hydrated to recover quickly, and do not indulge in heavy physical activities until you feel better.
