If you start feeling sick whenever you try to read a book on a car journey, you’re not alone – it’s something many passengers deal with thanks to our basic instincts
Feeling sick when you read a book in a moving car is a common experience.
Long car journeys aren’t exactly most people’s idea of fun, and if you’re not the one driving, you’ll need something to keep you entertained. For a lot of people, pulling out a book and losing yourself in another world is the perfect way to kill some time, but that’s not always possible as some of us start feeling sick as soon as we try to focus on our book.
But if you can’t read a book in a moving car without feeling nauseous, you’re not alone. According to one woman on TikTok, it’s a condition that impacts around 30% of people, and the scientific reason for the sensation might surprise you – as it’s all to do with your basic instincts.
Felicia said in her video: “30% of the population cannot read while they’re riding in a moving car, and the reason why is hilarious. There’s this thing called sensory conflict. It’s when one of your senses is telling your brain one thing while another sense is telling it something else.
“When you’re in a moving car, your body is telling your brain that you’re in motion, but when you try to look at the book, your eyes are telling your brain that you’re standing still, so our brains are really confused. How can we be moving and staying still at the same time?”
The woman went on to say that your brain associates this confusion with the same sort of reaction you’d have to a “psychedelic trip” after having eaten something you’re not supposed to, which is why you end up feeling nauseous.
She continued: “Our ancestors never had to deal with things like cars, but what they did have was mushrooms. So our brains assume that the reason we’re having sensory conflict is because we ate something crazy out in the wilderness. And the reason you get nauseous is because your brain thinks you need to barf up whatever it is you might have accidentally eaten.”
Felicia’s explanation was also backed up in BBC’s Science Focus magazine, when science and technology educator Luis Villazon explained that motion sickness is caused when your inner ear and your eyes “disagree about whether you’re moving”. When reading in a car, your visual field is stationary, but your inner ear can detect the twists and turns of the vehicle.
Luis wrote: “This sensory conflict triggers nausea, possibly because the brain thinks you’ve eaten something toxic that’s making you hallucinate. About a third of us are more prone to motion sickness, with children aged 2-12, the elderly, migraine sufferers and pregnant women among the high-risk groups.”
Commenters on Felicia’s video pointed out that they can often read perfectly fine in other moving vehicles like trains and planes but struggle in cars. This could be because cars often start and stop more frequently and have to take more obvious turns, whereas planes and trains tend to have longer continuous movement.
One person said: “I can’t even look away from the road with our [sic] get nauseous. I can’t even ride in the back seat because I don’t have a good enough view of the outside, so I get sick.” And another added: “I have this problem!”
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