How do I avoid travel sickness?

Motion sickness is a mismatch: the inner ear reports movement that the eyes do not confirm, and the brain reacts to the contradiction. Everything that helps works by reducing the mismatch — either by reducing the movement or by letting the eyes see it. That is why looking out of the window helps and looking at a phone makes it dramatically worse.

Safety

Step by step

1. Sit where there is least movement.Front seat of a car, over the wing on an aircraft, the middle of a ferry and low down, and a forward-facing window seat on a train. In every vehicle the extremities move most.
2. Look at the horizon or a fixed distant point.It lets the eyes confirm what the inner ear is reporting, which is the whole mechanism. On a ferry that means going up on deck rather than staying in a cabin.
3. Put the screens and the book away.Reading and looking at a phone are the single biggest aggravating factors, because the eyes report a stationary world while the body feels movement. Audiobooks and music are the substitutes.
4. Take any remedy before setting off.Tablets, bands and patches all need to be in place before symptoms start — most tablets need to be taken a good while before travel. Once nausea has begun, almost nothing taken by mouth works well.
5. Ask a pharmacist which remedy suits.Several common travel sickness medicines cause drowsiness, which rules them out for the driver and may not suit a child. Ginger, acupressure bands and non-drowsy options exist. Pharmacists deal with this daily.
6. Get air moving and keep it cool.A window slightly open or a vent aimed at the face. Stuffiness, heat and strong smells — air fresheners, food, fuel — all make it worse quickly.
7. Eat lightly rather than not at all.An empty stomach is as bad as a full one. Something plain before travelling, and small dry snacks during, works better than either extreme. Fatty or spicy food beforehand is a poor idea.
8. Drive smoothly if you are the driver.Anticipating rather than braking and accelerating, and taking bends steadily, makes a large difference to everyone else in the car. Winding roads with a rushed driver are the classic combination.
9. Stop early and often.Fresh air and a few minutes on solid ground resets it. A stop taken at the first hint is worth far more than one taken after somebody has been sick.
10. Be prepared anyway.Bags, wipes, water, a spare set of clothes for the child and for whoever is next to them. It converts a disaster into an inconvenience.

Tips

• Children between roughly two and twelve are most affected and many grow out of it. Sitting them where they can see out of the front rather than sideways helps considerably.
• Sea sickness usually settles after a day or so at sea as the body adapts. The first hours are the worst, so take something before boarding.
• If someone is prone to it, tell them what the plan is. Anxiety about being sick genuinely makes sickness more likely.

Common mistakes

• Taking a tablet once you feel unwell — Almost all remedies have to be taken before travel to work. Once nausea has started, absorption is poor and it is too late.
• Giving a child a tablet or a screen to distract them — Looking down at a screen is the strongest aggravating factor there is. An audiobook or a game of spotting things out of the window does the distraction without the mismatch.

Questions people ask