Some people are especially prone to getting sick in the car or other forms of transportation such as the bus, train, plane, or boat. At a certain point during the journey they begin to experience so-called motion sickness or motion sickness, which manifests itself with general malaise, cold sweats, nausea, vomiting, yawning and an upset stomach, among other symptoms.
But have you ever wondered why the driver of the vehicle does not get dizzy, while the rest of the passengers do? Even the same person who is vulnerable to motion sickness in general is spared from feeling unwell if he is behind the wheel of the car. To understand why this exception occurs, you must first know the reason why car sickness occurs.
Motion sickness is caused by an imbalance in the information received by the brain and ears, responsible for regulating stability and balance in the human body. During a trip, the vestibular system – responsible for detecting movements and maintaining balance, located in the ear – detects movement. However, by keeping your gaze fixed on something and with the pertinent muscle relaxation of sitting, the brain interprets that the person is still.
As a consequence, there is an incongruence between what the organism sees and what it feels. Precisely for this reason, the feeling of dizziness in the car is worse if the person is reading or looking at the mobile phone, while it is less if the person is looking at the landscape through the window.
Although anyone is susceptible to motion sickness, children, the elderly, and pregnant women are more vulnerable to car sickness.
To drive a vehicle, it is an essential condition to keep your eyes fixed on the road. This is why both the brain and the ears align in the perception of movement, which is not the case in the case of passengers.
Since the driver observes and analyzes the road, and drives the car, his brain is aware of the movement. And he predicts the direction of the vehicle, anticipating, for example, curves that catch the other occupants of the cabin by surprise. Consequently, the driver does not suffer from motion sickness, he does not get dizzy, since there is no discrepancy between the information that sight and hearing transmit to the brain.
Precisely for this reason, the recommended seats for people who tend to suffer from car sickness are the passenger seat or the center seat in the rear, since their field of vision is greater. In this regard, another tip to prevent motion sickness is to keep your gaze forward through the windshield, following the trajectory of the vehicle, avoiding staring at screens or books that can give the brain a sensation of stillness.
