I can tell you from personal experience that people do develop ‘sea legs’ but most journeys are too short, and holiday time too valuable to wait for that to happen. Those who experience bouts of nausea and even vomiting driven by migraine or Ménière' s disease should be aware that their remedies work in different ways and may not help motion sickness even though symptoms can feel similar.
Before I go through the steps you can take let me give you my own personal views on the subject. Mine was a learned experience and was from a first channel crossing in bad weather when I was 10 years old, after which I always avoided anything that floated. However a temporary assignment 20 years later meant that I had to overcome the problem somehow. As I would be working I felt that the chemical route was not one I wanted to take. I did try some of the other methods that I will talk about later but they did not work for me.
What did work was understanding what was happening to my body and working with it rather than against it.
Many peoples first reaction on a ship if they feel bad is to go to their cabin. Most of the time this does not help and only makes it worse. You just need to understand that you are standing in a room or a corridor that as far as your eyes are concerned is not moving. On the other hand, your ears are telling your brain that it is. The resulting confusing is motion sickness. The Captain of a ship I was on said that the best way to fix the problem was to be able to see the horizon. The movement stayed the same but now the messages going to the brain were consistent. It takes a while to get used to the movement but this is a lot easier if you do not think you are about to be sick. Try not to read but if you have to keep looking up and around you.
So can just let your brain know what’s really happening work? Well before I go on to all the other options I will let you judge. The assignment I was on meant that I was on the bridge of a cruise ship that was going across the Bay of Biscay in bad weather. The ship was corkscrewing, which meant that it was rolling from side to side while at the same time rocking from stem to stern. While not enjoyable I was not sick and 40 years later I have just returned from my 27th-holiday cruise and I’m looking forward to booking the next one.
So what else can you do?
Before I go through the steps you can take let me give you my own personal views on the subject. Mine was a learned experience and was from a first channel crossing in bad weather when I was 10 years old, after which I always avoided anything that floated. However a temporary assignment 20 years later meant that I had to overcome the problem somehow. As I would be working I felt that the chemical route was not one I wanted to take. I did try some of the other methods that I will talk about later but they did not work for me.
What did work was understanding what was happening to my body and working with it rather than against it.
Many peoples first reaction on a ship if they feel bad is to go to their cabin. Most of the time this does not help and only makes it worse. You just need to understand that you are standing in a room or a corridor that as far as your eyes are concerned is not moving. On the other hand, your ears are telling your brain that it is. The resulting confusing is motion sickness. The Captain of a ship I was on said that the best way to fix the problem was to be able to see the horizon. The movement stayed the same but now the messages going to the brain were consistent. It takes a while to get used to the movement but this is a lot easier if you do not think you are about to be sick. Try not to read but if you have to keep looking up and around you.
So can just let your brain know what’s really happening work? Well before I go on to all the other options I will let you judge. The assignment I was on meant that I was on the bridge of a cruise ship that was going across the Bay of Biscay in bad weather. The ship was corkscrewing, which meant that it was rolling from side to side while at the same time rocking from stem to stern. While not enjoyable I was not sick and 40 years later I have just returned from my 27th-holiday cruise and I’m looking forward to booking the next one.
So what else can you do?