Is it different reading on a phone or reading from a screen in a moving vehicle?

Upvote:2

I don't have the studies to back this up on my, but my understanding of motion sickness is:

  • You inner ear is telling you you are moving
  • But you are not walking
  • Your other senses also may be telling you are not walking.
  • Your body interprets this contradiction as a sign that something is wrong, determines you may be poisoned, and so has you vomit.

So it is the bolded point that is why looking out the window, makes it better. It decreases the contradiction. Where as reading or watching a movie on your iPod, does not help, you gain no more reference.

I can see the argument that looking at a movie would make it worse since the camera moves are out of sync even more with your inner ear. But I don't think it is that significant for most people. Very few people get motion sick in movies (though it does happen, it is more common in imax dome cinemas, for example)

Of course there are other reasons people get sick while in motion:

  • constant motion, eg why people get sick on fair rides, and on ships worse
  • Unrelationed illness blamed on motion sickness. Eg Food poisoning from bad roadhouse food.

Upvote:2

There is no universal condition for motion sickness, each and every one of us reacts differently. Some folks can read in a car, some can not, some folks get sea sick, some don't, some get air sick, some don't.

While some events result in a high percentage of people being effected such as really rough seas, even there a portion of the people will be ok.

You pretty much have to discover how your body reacts the hard way ... try it and hope you don't puke.

But in regard to ebook versus paper book, likely the difference would be due to the screen flicker. While you don't notice it, your brain does 'see' it. Folks who are bothered by ereaders may also feel uneasy in nightclubs with strobe lights.

More post

Search Posts

Related post