motion sickness?

so I cant read on the bus or play with my phone cause I get a headache and nations from the motion. I get sick on boats, get sick reading in the car (or playing on phone). Now the question: Will I have to worry about getting motion sick reading on my tablet on the train? I did a short trip from mke to chi and was ok but I wasn't reading, I was taking pics. trying to decide what to pack for enterainment

I'd think if you can keep the outside away from your vision, you should be ok. You're going to be in a sleeper, right? If so, you can close the curtains when you want to read.

My daughter got a little car sick whenever she was in the rear facing seat of our roomette, so I usually ended up sitting there.

AmtrakBlue said:

I'd think if you can keep the outside away from your vision, you should be ok.

Click to expand...

Curious. I always find that seeing the outside keeps me anchored. When bouncing around (like on a train) and I CAN'T see what's happening outside, then there might be issues.

see I can look or not look and still get sick. Im hoping i can read with my seabands! I did ok on the boat with them (and hanging out the window doing wave photography)

Have you ever tried Dramamine or something similar to it? I used to get motion sickness when I was a kid and it helped me.

flying_babyb said:

so I cant read on the bus or play with my phone cause I get a headache and nations from the motion. I get sick on boats, get sick reading in the car (or playing on phone). Now the question: Will I have to worry about getting motion sick reading on my tablet on the train? I did a short trip from mke to chi and was ok but I wasn't reading, I was taking pics. trying to decide what to pack for enterainment

Click to expand...

I get sick in the same situations you do. I find that I can occasionally read on the train. It depends on how rough the track is, how fast the train is going, how much light there is, etc. I also find that it helps to increase the font size on my tablet. As others have said, it also helps if I'm facing forward.

Secondly... I spend most of the time on the train looking at the scenery. However, all trains have to stop some times, whether in stations, in sidings waiting for passing trains, etc. I always keep a book or tablet handy for those times, & find I can get a surprisingly large amount of reading done.

flying_babyb said:

I get sick on a bus

I get sick on a boat

I get sick reading in the car

I get sick playing on a phone

I can look or not look and still get sick.

Will I have to worry about getting motion sick reading on my tablet on the train?

Click to expand...

From the sounds of it nearly everything risks making you sick so I don't see why the train would be any different. In my experience Amtrak long distance trains can rock a lot more than a bus or car but not as much as a boat. Amtrak is also more bumpy than 99% of flights I've experienced, although the 1% of flights that are more bumpy than Amtrak can be rather severe. I've never suffered from motion sickness myself but I would second the suggestion to look into some medicinal solutions. I would also recommend selecting the bottom level on any dual floor trains and recommend against staying in the last car of the train if possible.

I could never ride the DC Metro and read and not get sick. But I can ride Amtrak and read and never get sick.

Just that as a data point.

Another data point: My husband gets queasy if he even thinks about being on a boat, but is fine on Amtrak long distance. Even while reading. As a preventative measure, he gets the forward-facing seat when we're sharing a roomette.

flying_babyb said:

I get sick on boats, get sick reading in the car (or playing on phone). Now the question: Will I have to worry about getting motion sickness

Click to expand...

First off, don't worry. Have a nice trip!

Sea-Band Wristband - I don't use these often (small boats) but they are great, - wish I had them for Chemo several years back,, the anecdotal on what they work on is awesome. They are like $6 on Amazon

flying_babyb said:

so I cant read on the bus or play with my phone cause I get a headache and nations from the motion. I get sick on boats, get sick reading in the car (or playing on phone). Now the question: Will I have to worry about getting motion sick reading on my tablet on the train? I did a short trip from mke to chi and was ok but I wasn't reading, I was taking pics. trying to decide what to pack for enterainment

Click to expand...

You'll probably be fine. I get super-super motion sick on buses, in cars, in boats, and in airplanes. I don't get motion sick AT ALL in trains.

Your experience may vary, and some people do get motion sick on trains, but it's much less common. I think it's something about the nature of the motion on the train. Because it's fixed to the tracks, there is essentially no "yaw" motion, and apparently that is key to preventing motion sickness for me. There is lots of "roll", and there's some "pitch" ("bouncing" on the tracks, as well as going up and down hills), but there's basically no yaw, and that seems to make all the difference for some of us.

Yaw also seems to be one of the biggest sources of motion sickness on airplanes -- they make special efforts to avoid heavy yawing for passenger comfort -- so this sensitivity to yaw may be particularly common.

p&sr said:

AmtrakBlue said:

I'd think if you can keep the outside away from your vision, you should be ok.

Click to expand...

Curious. I always find that seeing the outside keeps me anchored. When bouncing around (like on a train) and I CAN'T see what's happening outside, then there might be issues.

Click to expand...

I don't know. The last time I took the Block Island Ferry, I was inside looking out the window, an the straight line of the horizon rotating back and forth within the frame of the window made me queasy, and the seas weren't all that rough, either.

MARC Rider said:

p&sr said:

AmtrakBlue said:

I'd think if you can keep the outside away from your vision, you should be ok.

Click to expand...

Curious. I always find that seeing the outside keeps me anchored. When bouncing around (like on a train) and I CAN'T see what's happening outside, then there might be issues.

Click to expand...

I don't know. The last time I took the Block Island Ferry, I was inside looking out the window, an the straight line of the horizon rotating back and forth within the frame of the window made me queasy, and the seas weren't all that rough, either.

Click to expand...

When I used to ride amusement rides that might make me sick, I would look at my feet because they were going the same way I was going.

An article in the local paper recently said the length of time a boat tilts side to side is called a period. Or Roll Period. Worst is about 6 seconds and that's gets folks sick.

Ive never had motion sickness but seems the trains bouncing and jolting all the time and trying to read would possibly make me sick too. So I don't read on a train.