Reading in the back seat of a car can make you feel tired, because at this time, your eyes and ears are “fighting” intensely, and your brain has to find a way to solve the problem.
When you are reading a book in the back seat of a car, your eyes see the book in a static state. It will therefore “tell” the brain that you are standing still.
But your ears feel that the car is moving . It will therefore “tell” the brain that you are moving.
Ears aren’t just for hearing, they also help you keep your balance.
The ear consists of 3 main parts:
The inner ear contains hairy cells that grow from the top. Scientists they are “hair cells”.
Some hair cells help us hear. When the sound hits the hair cells, the hairs move and the cells send signals to the brain. Our brain will use these signals to hear.
Other hair cells help us keep our balance. When the car you are sitting in moves, the movement of the car will cause the hairs on the hair cells to move, and then they will send a signal to the brain. Our brains use those different signals to know we are moving.
Some people’s brains don’t like situations where their eyes say they’re stationary, but their ears tell them they’re moving.
When the eyes and ears argue like this, the brain can speculate that something dangerous is about to happen.
If this happens, the brain can put the body in a fight-or-flight state (scientists call this the “fight or flight” response).
One of the things the brain can do now is direct blood out of the stomach to the muscles.
Bringing blood to the muscles can help us fight or flee. But when the stomach loses blood, we will have a feeling of motion sickness.
If reading in the back seat of a car makes you feel motion sickness, you need to “settle” the eye-to-ear argument.
One way to do this is to stop reading and look out the car window. That can help your eyes tell your brain you’re moving, because you see the outside world pass by, and your ears tell your brain you’re moving because you sense the car moving.
But this is not suitable for everyone. Some people still feel drunk in the car, even if they haven’t read a book.
That’s because while our eyes and ears help us balance, our skin and muscles do the same. And then there are many other controversies that force the brain to solve!