Motion sickness, also known as ‘travel sickness’ or ‘car sickness’, describes the feeling of nausea, dizziness, vomiting and general discomfort when travelling in a moving vehicle. It is caused by repeated movements when travelling, such as bumps in the road, where the inner ear sends signals to your brain that differ from what your eyes see. This leads to confusing messages that cause the feeling of sickness. While feeling this way is bad enough in a car, it can be even more uncomfortable on a coach – check out our top tips on how to combat travel sickness on long coach journeys.
Practice Breathing Exercises
Focussing on your breathing is proven to help in many situations where you feel unease and can help you to regain control and prevent panicking. Controlling your breathing gives you something else to do, taking your mind off the situation and reducing your symptoms.
A lot of the time, thinking about how sick you feel only increases the intensity of nausea, so it’s very important to try not to worry. By controlling your inhaling and exhaling and doing helpful exercises (e.g. counting backwards in your head while you breathe), you can calm down and reduce the feelings of sickness.
Choose a Suitable Seat
Choosing a suitable seat is vital if you suffer from travel sickness, and it’s actually good for preventing feeling that way in the first place. Because motion sickness is caused by mixed signals of what you see and hear, it’s best to sit where there is less movement during the journey. Typically, the best seats for this are in the middle, as you are more likely to remain still there as the engine’s vibrations and bumps in the road are felt less. Sitting close to the front is also recommended, so you can see outside the front windscreen as opposed to a fast-moving landscape that can feel disorientating and increase feelings of nausea.
Distract Yourself by Talking
While you may not feel like talking, distraction is the best way of keeping your mind occupied and preventing any worry you feel thanks to travel sickness. Talking with other travellers can go a long way in focussing your mind elsewhere and reducing your feelings of sickness and discomfort.
However, the same cannot be said for reading, texting or using social media, as this will make symptoms much worse. When dealing with travel sickness, you should relax your eyes as opposed to focussing on small print or moving images. Listening to music is recommended as another distraction – try to make this as relaxing as possible.
Digest Some Ginger
It is well-known that ginger can help to reduce or even prevent symptoms of sickness, and the same can be said for motion sickness. While you may wish to speak to a doctor before taking something containing ginger – a potential concern for pregnant women and people who use blood thinners – if you can stomach the strong taste, it could well be worth a try.
You may also wish to avoid eating an hour before your journey, or avoid food and drink that can make you feel unusually full – typically anything fatty or greasy – which is likely to increase your nausea symptoms.
If you’re travelling with us and are concerned about how travel sickness might impact your journey, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. A member of our friendly team will be more than happy to discuss how we can make your journey as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.