Buzz
Ah, summer! A time for road trips and finally making a dent in that ever-growing stack of books. It seems like the perfect combo, but for many, reading in the car just isn’t possible unless they’re prepared to take a detour to the land of nausea. So what’s the deal with feeling sick while trying to read on the road?
Let’s break it down from an evolutionary perspective: Our brains are much like anxious new parents, and we are their little ones just learning to explore. Much of our brain’s development took place long before cars or books existed. In fact, they evolved in an era where predators and toxic plants were real threats. To stay alive, our brains became highly alert, developing stress responses to help us fight or flee, and even triggering vomiting at the first sign of poisoning.
This world may seem ordinary to us since we were born into it. We understand that riding in a car and reading a book are completely normal activities. But our brains aren’t entirely convinced of that just yet.
Scientists theorize that this is how it works: When we walk, our bodies are both moving and traveling at the same time. To your brain, this is the only way motion can happen. However, when you're in a car, your body isn’t really moving, just traveling. Your muscles, nerves, and eyes send signals to your brain that you’re staying still. At the same time, the fluid in your ears is shifting around, signaling to your brain that you're definitely in motion. So your brain is receiving two opposing messages at once. One long-held theory is that your primitive brain interprets this confusion as a sign of poisoning.
Cue the urge to vomit.
So, why do books make it worse? Consider one of the most common remedies for carsickness: looking out the window. Seeing the world moving by is a great way to calm your nervous brain. The opposite is true as well: Fixating on a single, unmoving object amplifies the sensory discord and reinforces your brain’s conclusion that something is terribly wrong.
Here’s some good news: Many people eventually grow out of carsickness. The more time your brain spends in this contradictory, confusing state, the better it gets at figuring out what’s truly helpful—and what just leaves you miserable and puking by the roadside.
