Have you ever felt sick while riding in a car? Some people do, and it’s called car sickness. Let me tell you a story about my daughter, Mira. A few years ago, we went on a road trip to the mountains. Everything was fine until we started driving on the twisty mountain roads. Mira began to feel dizzy and like she might throw up. But as soon as we stopped and she got out of the car, she felt better.
Car sickness is a type of motion sickness. It’s not just cars that can make you feel this way. Some people feel sick on buses, roller coasters, or even airplanes. Did you know that people have been feeling motion sickness for thousands of years? Even in ancient Greece, Rome, and China, people wrote about feeling sick when traveling in carts or on ships.
So, why does moving around make some people feel sick? It turns out that it might have to do with our senses. We have five main senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. But we also have other senses that help us know where our body is and if we’re moving. These senses send messages to our brain.
When you’re in control of your movement, like when you’re running, all your senses agree that you’re moving. Your eyes see the ground moving, your muscles feel your legs moving, and your skin feels the wind. But when you’re in a car, you’re not in control. Your inner ear might tell your brain that you’re moving, but your eyes might see things inside the car that aren’t moving, like your legs or the seat. This can confuse your brain.
Scientists think this confusion might be why people feel motion sick. If you can get all your senses to agree that you’re moving, you might feel better. For example, if you’re in a car, try looking out the window at the scenery. This might help your brain understand that you’re moving.
Not everyone gets motion sick, and some people get it worse than others. Scientists are still trying to figure out why this happens. Maybe one day, someone will discover a way to stop motion sickness for everyone!
That’s all for today! Remember, there are many mysteries in the world, and it’s fun to learn about them. Stay curious, and maybe you’ll be the one to solve one of these mysteries someday!
Experiment with Your Senses: Try a simple experiment to understand how your senses work together. Close your eyes and have a friend or family member gently spin you around in a circle. Then, stop and open your eyes. How do you feel? Discuss with your partner how your senses of sight and balance might be sending different messages to your brain. Can you think of ways to make your senses agree?
Observation Journal: Keep a journal for a week to observe when you feel dizzy or unsteady. Write down what you were doing, where you were, and how you felt. Did you notice any patterns? Share your findings with your class and discuss what might cause these feelings. How do your observations relate to what you learned about motion sickness?
Create a Motion Sickness Remedy: Imagine you are a scientist trying to help people feel better when they get motion sick. Design a simple tool or strategy that could help someone feel better in a moving vehicle. It could be a drawing of a special pair of glasses, a fun game to play, or a song to sing. Share your idea with your classmates and explain how it might help the brain understand movement better.
**Sanitized Transcript:**
(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. Do you get car sick?
I don’t really, but my daughter Mira does. A few years ago, we were going on a road trip up into the mountains of Northern California. It started out fine, but then once we got up into the windy mountain roads, Mira started to not feel so well. She felt dizzy and then like she had to throw up. But almost as soon as we got there, and then when she got out of the car and started walking around, she felt fine again.
So, car sickness isn’t just unpleasant; it’s a strange thing too, where you can almost feel fine as soon as you get out of the car. Someone named Felix has a question about this. Let’s get Felix a call now.
(phone ringing) – Hi Doug.
– Hi Felix.
– I have a question for you: why do people get car sick?
– Oh, that’s a great question. You may have noticed that it’s not just riding in cars that can make you feel carsick. Some people get that dizzy, queasy feeling in other places too, such as riding buses, roller coasters, or flying in airplanes. In fact, I was surprised to find out that people all over the world have been feeling what we call car sickness since long before cars were even invented. People in ancient Greece, Rome, and China all wrote about feeling sick to their stomachs when they traveled in carts or sailed on ships as early as 2000 years ago.
So, what do riding in a car, sailing on a ship, and going on a roller coaster ride have in common? You might notice that they all have to do with movement or motion. The term we use to describe this whole category of feeling sick is motion sickness. But that still doesn’t answer the question: why would being in motion make someone sick?
To answer that question, it might help to consider the opposite. Why do certain kinds of motion not make people feel motion sick while others do? After all, you don’t get motion sickness from running, jumping, or moving yourself in a wheelchair. Before I go on, I’m curious: why do you think that some kinds of motion, like sailing on a boat, can make people feel sick, while other kinds, like running, don’t? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? Well, I don’t know how you answered, but one thing you might notice is that all the situations where people get motion sickness are situations where they’re not in control of their body’s movement. If you run, for example, you’re moving your body with your legs. You can control how fast you go, if you move side to side, or bounce up and down as you run. But when you’re riding in the backseat of a car, the car is moving your body, not you. You can be sitting completely still in the backseat and still be speeding down a road.
Noticing this difference led scientists to think that maybe motion sickness has to do with your senses. You probably know about at least five of your senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. Different parts of your body are responsible for these senses. Your eyes help you see, your nose helps you smell, your tongue helps you taste, and so on. These body parts send messages to your brain about what your body is doing and experiencing.
But would it surprise you to know that you have other senses besides these five? Many parts of your body send messages to your brain. Your skin, muscles, joints, and even a part of your body deep inside your ear, your inner ear, all send messages to your brain about where your body is in space and whether you’re still or moving and how fast.
When you’re in control of your own movement, all of your senses are sending the same messages to your brain. For example, let’s imagine you’re running down a road. As you run, all your senses are telling your brain the same thing: I’m moving. Your joints and muscles tell your brain that your legs and arms are moving, you can see the ground moving beneath your feet, and you feel the air rushing past you. Your brain isn’t surprised by these messages; after all, you’re the one making the movement happen.
But when you’re not in control of your own movement, suddenly there’s a chance for your senses to send your brain different messages. For instance, instead of running down a road, let’s imagine you’re riding down that same road in the backseat of a car. As the car speeds forward and bounces up and down, your inner ear tells your brain that your body is moving. But what about your other senses?
Think about what you see when you’re riding in a car. If you look out the window, you might see the road moving by you. But if you look inside the car, you might see things that don’t look like they’re moving at all, like your legs resting still on the seat or the driver in front of you. Your eyes might be sending your brain signals that you’re still, while other parts of your body are sending your brain signals that you’re moving.
Scientists think that the confusion your brain experiences when it gets these mixed signals might be what makes you feel motion sick. If that theory is true, it points to a way that might help you feel better when you do get motion sickness. If you can get all of your senses to tell your brain that you’re moving, that might help you feel better.
How might you be able to do this? If you’re in a car, maybe you could look straight ahead out the window so that you see the scenery moving. Still, this trick doesn’t work well for everyone. And there’s another thing too: some people seem to get motion sickness much worse than others, and some people don’t get motion sick at all.
If motion sickness comes from your senses confusing your brain with mixed messages, that doesn’t really explain why that confusion makes some people feel sick but not others. Which is why some scientists think maybe we still don’t have all of this figured out yet. There may be some other pieces to this puzzle, or perhaps a different answer entirely, which we haven’t figured out yet. Maybe one day, one of you will figure it out or even find a way to cure motion sickness for everybody.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Felix, for asking it. Now, for the next episode, I reached into our question jar and picked out three questions sent in to us that we’re thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: how do solar panels work? Why does it sometimes hail when it rains? Or, why don’t people fall out of roller coasters when they go upside down? So submit your vote when the video is over. We want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
