How to manage motion sickness

Your inner ear senses movement while your eyes may see a relatively still car, cabin or screen. The mismatch can affect the brain’s balance processing and bring on nausea, cold sweating, headache, dizziness or vomiting. Symptoms often ease after the movement stops, although tiredness may linger.

Choose a seat with a steady view of the horizon: the front passenger seat in a car, a forward-facing seat over the wing in a plane, or a central position on a boat. Keep your head supported, look ahead, avoid reading and limit strong smells. Take small sips of water and choose light food rather than a heavy meal before travel. Fresh air and slow, regular breathing may help.

A pharmacist or doctor can discuss an anti-sickness medicine and when to take it. Some options can cause drowsiness, so ask before driving, operating equipment, or combining them with alcohol or other sedating medicines. Read the label and check suitability for children, pregnancy, glaucoma, prostate problems and other conditions.

Seek urgent medical help for severe or persistent vomiting, inability to keep fluids down, fainting, confusion, severe headache, chest pain, weakness, trouble speaking or new hearing or vision changes. Arrange a medical review if dizziness continues after travel, episodes occur without movement, or symptoms are becoming more frequent.

Ask which prevention option fits your age, health conditions and other medicines; when it should be used; whether drowsiness is expected; and what to do if vomiting prevents you from keeping an oral medicine down.