Guide to preventing travel sickness

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Medicine

Travel or motion sickness happens in situations where any kind of repetitive swaying movement occurs such as sailing, being driven in a car or travelling on a train.

Some unfortunate people start to feel nausea and start to sweat before their journey has even begun, and others suffer symptoms just by watching scenes of movement on large screens such as an Imax.

You get travel sickness when your brain receives mixed signals from the different parts of your body involved in keeping balance such as your ears and eyes. Why it affects some people more than others remains a mystery.

Symptoms

A person with travel sickness will usually feel unwell to begin with, followed by discomfort in the upper abdomen and nausea. After this the symptoms worsen – the person usually turns pale, either the whole face or around the mouth, and they may experience cold sweats and dizziness.

Light headedness then develops along with feelings of depression and apathy.

Vomiting usually follows bringing about a feeling of relief, though some people suffer prolonged periods of nausea before this happens.

Others may suffer from headaches, which feel like a tight band across the forehead.

Preventing travel sickness

It's best to try to reduce the triggers of your motion sickness. Avoid eating heavy meals, spicy or fatty foods and drinking alcohol before travelling. Reading books, maps or newspapers usually makes travel sickness worse.

Travelling by air

  • Try for a seat over the wing, the most stable part of the aeroplane
  • Choose a window seat
  • Direct the air vent to your face
  • Wear an eye mask
  • Lean back, breathe deeply and listen to some music to help you relax

    • Travelling by car

  • Let the driver know you suffer from travel sickness
  • Sit in the front seat and look ahead at a stationary object
  • Open a widow to let in some fresh air
  • Avoid swaying movements by taking bends slowly
  • Avoid jerking movements by accelerating and braking gently
  • Try to seat children in a position where they can see the road clearly

    • Travelling by sea

  • Ask for a berth where the motion of the ship is least, usually on a low deck near the centre of the ship.
  • Go for a walk on deck, but keep your eyes fixed on the horizon or something which isn't moving

    • Travelling by train

  • Sit in the front carriage
  • Choose a forward facing window seat

    • Medication

    There are several anti-motion drugs available which can be prescribed by your GP or purchased from your pharmacist. These include products containing hycosine or anti-histamines such as cinnarizine, prompromethazine, dimenhydrinate and cyclizine.

    Hycosine needs to be taken 30 minutes before travelling and is effective for up to 4 hours. It can cause side-effects such as drowsiness, dry mouth and blurred vision.

    Most of the other medication takes about 2 hours to become fully effective, bur they lasts longer - from 8 to nearly 24 hours. Drowsiness is less of a problem with cinnarizine and cyclizine.

    It is inadvisable to take alcohol, drive a car or operate any machinery whilst taking travel sickness medication

    Complementary therapies

    Some people swear by various alternative treatments, although their effectiveness in preventing motion sickness has not been scientifically proven.

    These include taking ginger, which can be eaten in a biscuit, tea or crystallised, and peppermint teas and sweet.

    Similarly, wristbands (Acubands and seabands) which put pressure on a point above the wrist, known to acupuncturists as the P6 point, are widely available from local pharmacies.

    Even if these are working purely on the "placebo" effect, that might be enough to get you where you want to go!

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