Motion Sickness While Traveling: Causes and Fixes

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For a fair number of people, the excitement of a trip comes with one very specific worry: motion sickness. Whether it’s a car, bus, boat, or plane, that wave of nausea can turn a simple journey into a real challenge — and understanding why it happens is the first step toward reducing the discomfort.

What causes motion sickness

The technical term is kinetosis, and it happens because of a conflict between signals inside your own body. The vestibular system, located in the inner ear, detects motion and balance; the eyes take in the surrounding visual environment; and the body senses acceleration through receptors in muscles and joints. When you’re sitting inside a moving car, for example, the inner ear picks up on acceleration and turns, but the eyes — if they’re fixed on a book or a phone — tell the brain the body is sitting still. That mismatch of information gets interpreted by the brain as a possible sign of poisoning, triggering a response that includes nausea, cold sweats, and general discomfort.

What the science actually says

Physiology research shows motion sickness is most common in children between ages 2 and 12, whose sensitivity to sensory conflict tends to be higher, and it typically decreases into adulthood, though it never fully disappears for a lot of people. Studies also indicate women report motion sickness more often than men, possibly linked to hormonal variation, and that factors like a history of motion sickness on past trips, anxiety, and even strong smells in enclosed spaces (like a stuffy car interior) can bring on or intensify symptoms even before real movement starts.

The effects of motion sickness on a trip

Interrupted travel: episodes of nausea often force unplanned stops, delaying the trip and pulling focus away from whoever’s driving.
Accumulated fatigue: the physical discomfort combined with the stress of trying to manage symptoms can leave a person exhausted even on short trips.
Avoiding activities along the way: people prone to motion sickness tend to avoid reading, using their phone, or any close-focus activity, which cuts down on entertainment options during the ride.
Anticipatory anxiety: for anyone who’s had a bad episode before, just knowing a trip is coming up can trigger dread days ahead of time.

Ginger and other remedies people swear by

Beyond acupressure, ginger is one of the most studied natural remedies for nausea, with some clinical research suggesting it may help calm the digestive system enough to ease mild motion sickness symptoms, though results across studies are mixed and it isn’t considered a guaranteed fix. Over-the-counter antihistamine medications are also commonly used before travel, since one of their side effects is suppressing the inner ear signals responsible for triggering nausea — though they often come with drowsiness, which is worth planning around before a long drive.

Is airplane motion sickness different from car sickness?

Even though it comes from the same source — a conflict between what the eyes see and what the inner ear feels — motion sickness can vary in intensity depending on the mode of transport. On planes, turbulence tends to be the main trigger, since the movement is more unpredictable and vertical, unlike the steadier sway of a car on a straight road. On ships and boats, motion sickness tends to hit harder precisely because of the combination of movement in multiple directions at once — forward, backward, and side to side — which is why a lot of people who’ve never felt carsick still get seasick on the water. On buses and vans, reading or looking at a phone is especially risky because the vehicle is larger and shakes less visibly from the outside, but still turns and brakes enough to trigger the sensory conflict behind the nausea.

Common mistakes when trying to avoid motion sickness

A common mistake is trying to “distract the mind” by reading a book or scrolling a phone during the ride — in practice, that’s exactly the combination of signals that intensifies the sensory conflict causing the nausea in the first place. Another frequent mistake is traveling on an empty stomach, assuming it will prevent discomfort: an empty or overly full stomach tends to make nausea worse, so a light meal beforehand, avoiding greasy or heavily seasoned food, is usually the better call.

Ways to reduce motion sickness during a trip

A few simple changes go a long way: sitting where movement is felt less intensely, like the front seat of a car or seats over the wings on a plane; looking at the horizon or a fixed, distant point instead of anything inside the vehicle; making sure there’s good ventilation; and skipping reading or screens during the ride. Acupressure techniques, applied to specific points on the wrist, have also been used for decades as a non-medication alternative, with dedicated wristbands designed to keep that pressure constant throughout the trip without having to remember to do anything manually.

This isn’t a substitute for medical guidance in cases of severe or recurring motion sickness — persistent symptoms can have other underlying causes worth checking with a healthcare professional.

If you like planning trips carefully, you might also enjoy our piece on facts about amazing places to travel.