It actually makes sense.
When you have a long journey ahead of you, it can be hard to fill the time, whether you’re getting a bus home from college at the weekend or in the passenger seat on a long drive, it can be pretty boring.
It seems like a good idea to bring a book or magazine to occupy yourself. But as soon as you start reading you begin to feel nauseous, it’s hard to concentrate and you feel there’s a good chance you might puke.
You’re not alone in feeling this, as most people experience it on their travels, in fact, 80% of the population suffer from it at one point or another.
The reason behind this is to do with your brain getting confused according to Mentalfloss.
Scientist believe that your brain can’t cope with the motion of travelling combined with sitting still. If you think about it, your brain is used to associating travel with body movement. When you walk somewhere, obviously your legs are moving and it all makes sense to your brain.
But when you are in a car, you are moving, but you are also staying perfectly still, which is kind of a contradiction when you think about it.
The best way to reassure your mind that you know what’s going on is by looking out the window, that way you can see that you are moving as well as feeling the motion of it. But when you are reading you are looking down at the book, which doesn’t indicate any motion.
So your brain is getting two conflicting messages simultaneously, leading you to feel confused and queasy.
Another long-standing theory is that your brain thinks it is being poisoned.
The mixed experiences that our senses are getting, as mentioned above, can also lead a false identification of toxins in the body. So if you’re mind thinks it is being poisoned, it’s immediate response is to get rid of it, which is why you feel like you might get physically sick.
So if you suffer from motion sickness reading a book is the last thing you should do.
One of the most common recommended ways to aid motion sickness is to enhance your sensory awareness, so looking and listening to what is going on around you so that it all makes sense to your mind. Eating ginger before your travels is also said to be an effective way to settled the stomach before long journeys.
