Reading a book in the back of a moving vehicle is not always a great experience. More often, we feel sick and cannot concentrate on reading. This is because of the activities going on with our brains.
The reason we experience has to do with how our brain process information. It is a combination of our ears, eyes and the brain and how they coordinate while we are reading on a moving vehicle.
Why we feel sick reading a book in a moving car
Our ears contain three parts, the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. The inner ear is responsible for both balancing and hearing and contains hair that acts as antennae when listening and also helps in balancing.
When we are in a moving car, our eyes can keep still and concentrate on reading a book. However, the ears, which are responsible for balancing and determining if we are in motion or not, send signals to the brain that we are actually moving. This results in the brain trying to decide which information between the eyes and the ears it will trust.
This confusion is what causes the sickly feeling that we experience when we are traveling and reading at the same time. The brain is unable to determine what is happening on the outside world and hence causes the body to react in a fight or flight mode.
To achieve this, the brain can be able to take away blood from our stomachs and distribute it to our muscles. This distribution of blood from our stomachs to muscles is what makes us have a sickly feeling.
In case you start experiencing this while traveling, the solution is to relax and look out the car window. The brain is able to realign itself with its surroundings and you can feel normal again. It helps tell your brain that you are moving through both the visual from your eyes and moving sounds from your ears.
Featured image by Pixabay
