# motion sickness ... hmm



## roxy (Oct 14, 2008)

i just had a random thought. to help prevent motion sickness, do you think any amount of rocking in a rocking chair would help prepare for a ride in a car ? whats your opinion ??


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## jabment (Nov 14, 2008)

I could be entirely wrong here but I was once told that motion sickness is caused by your ears telling you one thing while your eyes tell you another. I don't really understand it or know how it works. I get really bad motion sickness when I'm not the one driving and my mom always tells me to just close my eyes. It usually helps a bunch. So I'm not sure that a rocking chair would produce quite the same effect because I think it creates a different noise or sight or something? I'm sure that made no sense but since I don't really know what I'm talking about, it's the best that I can explain. 

Solid idea, I'm just not sure it would work very well.


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

motion sickness i believe has to do with the movement of fluids in the ear and how it produces different simulations as to if you were moving in that direction normally.

Just a fun fact: If you spin in a chair with your eyes closed at a constant rotational velocity initially your ears will tell you are spinning based off the rotation of the fluid in the ears brushing against the fine hairs of the cochlea. This change of movement tells you that your are indeed spinning. Now if you continue to spin at a constant angular velocity long amount of time (2-3 minutes) you will begin to feel as if you have stopped spinning. The only thing still telling you are spinning is the wind on your face. You will feel as if you are perfectly straight as the fluid in your ear is no longer changing directions and is now moving constantly with the chair. Upon stopping the chair the fluid in your ear will change direction again and cause you to feel like you are spinning in the opposite direction. If you attempted to walk (still blindfolded) in this state you would walk in a circle, but not feel dizzy. 

As soon as you open your eyes is where dizzyness kicks in. The fluid in your ears are telling you that your spinning, but your eyes are telling you are not. Your body confuses the signals and thats where thing start to get weird.

The same happens when spinning, taking the blindfold off while spinning will confuse your ears (which think you are standing still) with your eyes (who know you are spinning) making you sick.

Motion sickness is an extension of this in which your ears and eyes do not communicate properly to register accelerations in all three planes as well as angular. This is why hills and turns often set people off. It all has to do with your inner ear, which is why some people get motion sick while others don't. It is mainly an inability for your ears and eyes to communicate.

From wikipedia: The area postrema in the brain is responsible for inducing vomiting when poisons are detected, and for resolving conflicts between vision and balance. When feeling motion but not seeing it (for example, in a ship with no windows), the inner ear transmits to the brain that it senses motion, but the eyes tell the brain that everything is still. As a result of the disconcordance, the brain will come to the conclusion that one of them is hallucinating and further conclude that the hallucination is due to poison ingestion. The brain responds by inducing vomiting, to clear the supposed toxin.

This also works in reverse, when your ears detect no motion (while spinning) but your eyes do. This is why many people with motion sickness do better in the front seat as they can see exactly what is happening.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

How do you know all of this cool stuff, Dave? :lol: I never knew that's why people get motion sickness, but it's really interesting....Way more interesting than my Genetics class at the moment (which I am currently ignoring...  ) lol.


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

lol, it is jsut how i am. When i find something i don't know i research it, and i can memorize theory behind things very easily. If i am told something interesting i am able to remember it for a long period of time. I am a well of useless knowledge and my friends refer to me as the impracticable genius.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Lol, that's awesome. Your description of yourself makes me think of Sheldon and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory. :lol: And I mean that as a total compliment because Sheldon is my favorite character and Leonard is also awesome!


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

lol, i'm not quite that nerotic but still pretty much similar in many aspects. I lean more to the leonard side than the sheldon side.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Lol, that's probably a good thing...
Btw, sorry for taking your post off track Roxy, I'll shut up now. :?


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

To get back on track of things  

So if we take everything literally and technically speaking, if the hedgies are burrowed up in fleece and unable to really SEE outside, then they shouldn't get car sickness. Maybe that's why my boy's always fine? Cause he just sleeps through the entire ride? :lol:


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

sleep does help because it shuts off your vision and balance control, thus your body is not able to confuse them. So yes, if they sleep they will not be car sick.

Now there are two possible reactions if they do not sleep. If they are in their hid y home there eyes say they are not moving, but their ears say they are, therefor they get sick.

The other reaction is if they can see the road (horizon) and still get car sick because the motion does not agree with the vision.

The two ways to help this are to have your hedgie sleep as you said, or have it close it's eyes.

Sometimes calming the hedgehog down making them less stressed will help them sleep or close their eyes during the ride.


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## kandyhedgie (Mar 23, 2009)

azyrios beat me to it!

for the original poster:
Probably wouldn't work. As pointed out so far, motion sickness in the car is really different. A rocking chair might prep your hedgie for a pretty wild boat ride though :lol:


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

once again it all depends on the hedgehog. Some are naturally more prone to car sickness than others jsut like humans. Vex likes to explore while in the car. If i had to guess i would ahve to say it has something to do with the different in inner ear structure between different animals, or inner ear "hair" length that is in the fluid.


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