What to know about motion sickness in travellers

Motion sickness can occur on cars, buses, boats, aircraft or amusement rides. Nausea may be joined by dizziness, vomiting, headache, pallor, sweating, yawning or unusual tiredness. Symptoms often ease when movement stops, although washed-out feelings can persist for a while.

Reading, looking down at a screen or sitting where movement is strongest can make the mismatch worse. Migraine, inner-ear disorders, pregnancy, anxiety and some medicines can also cause nausea or dizziness, so an unusual pattern deserves medical assessment.

Choose a seat with the least movement that your transport allows, face forward and look at a stable distant point. Keep fresh air moving, avoid reading and take regular pauses on road journeys. Eat light meals, drink fluids and limit alcohol before and during travel. Rest and sleep can make symptoms easier to manage.

A pharmacist or clinician can discuss preventive medicines, including when to take them and whether they cause drowsiness, blurred vision or dry mouth. Check before using them if you are pregnant, have glaucoma, prostate symptoms or take sedating medicines. Never drive or operate machinery until you know how a medicine affects you.

Arrange medical advice if dizziness or vomiting continues after the journey, happens without movement, repeatedly disrupts travel or causes dehydration. Seek urgent care for sudden severe headache, weakness on one side, fainting, chest pain, trouble speaking, new hearing loss or inability to keep fluids down. These features are not typical of simple motion sickness.

Ask which travel position and preventive medicine suit your journey, when to take a dose and how long drowsiness may last. Mention pregnancy, migraine, inner-ear problems and regular medicines, and ask which symptoms would point to a different cause.