For thousands of years, humans have been getting queasy on boats. People have long felt a rumbling in their stomachs and then braced themselves against the side of the ship in hopes the feeling might pass.
Hippocrates wrote about motion sickness more than 2,000 years ago, and the word “nausea” stems from the Greek word naus, meaning “ship.”
Scientists now understand what causes motion sickness and how it can be prevented. And studies find it’s something almost everyone will have to endure at one point in their life.
What Is Motion Sickness?
Scientists currently explain motion sickness through the sensory conflict and neural mismatch hypothesis, which they first proposed in the 1970s. The sensory conflict hypothesis is the most widely accepted explanation as to why people can feel sick to their stomachs while traveling in boats, cars, or planes.
