Study shares how music can help car sickness
For those suffering from motion sickness, there could be a very simple solution...
Imagine driving down a long, winding road while reading a book.
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If even the thought of this triggers a sense of nausea, then we will bet that you might suffer from motion sickness.
According to Medline Plus, one in three people worldwide suffers from this severely unpleasant feeling.
Luckily, a team of researchers may have a simple solution that is not looking out the window into the distance, such as medication or other old wives' tales.
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Led by neuroscientist Yilun Li from China's Henan Institute of Science and Technology, they have found that music can play an effective role in reducing travel-induced nausea and dizziness.
The only catch? It depends on the song.
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In their experiments, 30 participants were subject to a driving simulator while wearing an electroencephalograph (EEG) cap and made to feel carsick.
By using the EEG cap, researchers were able to "read" the volunteers' brain activity in real time, witnessing it transition between a stable state, to motion sickness and back again.
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The volunteers were divided into six groups:
- Four groups listened to a minute of music after the nauseating drive
- One group listened to no music after the drive and spent one minute meditating
- One group ended the drive right before participants were projected to feel nauseous.
Researchers found that joyful music alleviated the symptoms of carsickness by an average of 57.3% and soft music by 56.7%.
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Passionate music had an average reduction of 48.3%, confirming that music was more effective than any other method of reducing car sickness symptoms.
One music genre did not work as well.
Sad music had an average of 43.3% which was lower than the control group.
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With sad music, you would be better off waiting for the feelings to just naturally subside.
The study suggests that personalized music intervention strategies may effectively alleviate motion sickness symptoms of passengers, thereby increasing cabin comfort and improving the travel experience of passengers.
Although these experiments were only conducted on a small sample group, the success and findings of this study will hopefully lead to more research.
It has also once again confirmed the power of music and how it can transform our lives we could never even imagine.
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