Motion sickness happens because your brain receives 3 different sets of information that in NORMAL circumstances (like walking down the street or sitting in a chair at home) match with each other, but in things that move get out of synch with each other. The brain assumes the conflict in information is the result of a toxin, and initiates the vomitting response in an attempt to purge itself of the toxin.

The 3 sets of information come from:
1: The ears. (vestibular balance, spacial orientation, sense of motion)
2: Skeletal muscle (the body position, telling the brain what the body is doing)
3: The eyes (giving the brain visual cues to cross check the information of the ears, anticipation of expected motion on the horizon, distance reference points)


The way to reduce motion sickness is therefore to reduce the amount of disparity in the information the brain gets.

1: Close your eyes. In planes your ears tell your brain you are moving quite a lot, but you are not moving relative to everyone and everything ELSE in the plane. You may feel a huge drop during turbulence, but your eyes don't see it. They see the seatback and the ceiling in the same place as before. ."uh oh" says the brain "something doesn't match up". By closing your eyes, you eliminate 1/3rd of the bad information, and therefore 1/3rs of the problem. This significantly slows the progression of motion sickness.

2: Lift your feet of the floor during turbulence. Your body senses that it is sitting in a seat and not moving much at all. Your eyes also sense that you are relatively still, but your ears are telling your brain that you are all over the place. Lifting your feet off the floor reduces the contact points your skeletal muscle senses have with the aircraft. This actually brings the information your body is giving your brain into closer sync with the information your ears are. The body then has some info telling the brain that it is not infact still or on the ground.

3: Drugs. The chain reaction that the conflicting information sets off can be dulled with drugs that block receptors in the vastigial nerve and the vomitting center of the brain. Therefore, even if the brain is getting bad information, the cascade of neurological events that lead to being sick, or even of feeling sick, are blocked or slowed down. Dipenhydramine (dramamine, gravol) works well, but you need to take it BEFORE you feel sick. 1/2 hour before the flight. Expect to be groggy. Dimenhydrinate (Benadryl) also works well. Meclazine (non-drowsy Dramamine) can work with 100% effectiveness when it works, but only works 50% of the time, even in the same person. Scopalomine is an perscription drug you can get as a patch, pill, or transdermal gel. It is very effective compared to OTC drugs. No drowsyness but it can make you feel weird. Ginger also works, but you need the real stuff. The stuff that burns! Ginger tends to be better for nausea caused by actual toxins or illness, but it reduces motion related nausea a little. Most ginger ale does not actually contain any real ginger.

4: Psychology. Studies have shown that motion sickness is frequently psychogenic, that is, thinking about it can make it worse and speed up the horrific results of motion sickness. Worrying about it can cause it. Probably because anxiety causes a whole smorgasbord of GABA activity, another thing the brain takes as evidence of a toxin. Anti-anxiety drugs have a measurable impact on motion sickness, particularly Lorazepam which is sometimes used as an anti-seizure and anti-emetic drug.

Relax, take a few drugs, keep your eyes closed, sit in the middle over the wings, and you will be fine even in extreme turbulence