This is a game designed for Cody to improve visuospatial skills to help with motion sickness! I chose to publish it in case it might help anyone else.
Motion sickness is caused by your inner ear (which is responsible for your sense of balance) saying one thing, and your eyes/brain saying "I don't think that's right, we must be poisoned, better throw up!".
A
2020 study by Dr. Joseph Smyth1 showed that motion sickness is linked to spatial reasoning skills, and that those skills can be trained!
We had some success using puzzle books, but those quickly ran out, so I wrote this website to auto-generate puzzles. So far we have two types of puzzles, and we hope to add more in the future! Email me if there's a new type of puzzle you'd like to see.
This hasn't made the motion sickness go away, but it has made a noticeable difference, which can be the difference between "I'm gonna vom, I want to die" and "I am significantly uncomfortable". It has also allowed Cody to play complex 3D video games, like
Outer Wilds, which was impossible before.
Here are some other motion sickness mitigations that have had similar results. For Cody, nothing has made it completely go away, but many of these have helped reduce the acuteness. They are also all best used preventatively. Once the illness train starts, there's no stopping it.
Everyone responds differently. Some people report their sickness as being completely solved by just one of these, while other treatments have no effect for them. Try and see what works for you!
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Relief Band Sport
This delivers a small electric shock to a nerve on your wrist. It functions similarly to the anti-nausea acupressure wristbands. The idea is that disrupting this nerve overloads some of the same parts of your brain that contribute to motion sickness. Brings the motion sickness down one notch.
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Ginger Chews!
Hilarously, this is the sole active ingredient in the non-drowsy version of Dramamine. Mildly effective. Brings the motion sickness down half a notch.
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Dramamine
Well it works, I'll say that much. But it makes you drowsy and a bit unwell, and kind of just replaces one type of sick feeling with another. But hey, for a plane ride it's often just the thing.
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A single ear plug
No, really, just one. You want the kind that is a bit squishy, and you insert one into one ear. Cody doesn't like ear plugs, so I can't report on how effective it is.
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Motion sickness goggles!
Liquid in the glasses gives your eyes the illusion of a "horizon line" that matches whatever acceleration you are currently under, which supposedly helps the ear/eye conflict resolve. I can't report on the effectiveness of these, sadly, since Cody refused to wear something so silly in public.
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iPhone's Vehicle Motion Cues
iPhones have a setting that gives motion cues to help you look at your phone while in a moving vehicle. This didn't really do the trick for Cody, but some people report it works for them.
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Cool yourself down.
I don't have any science to back this one up. Just that Cody's motion sickness is much worse when they are too warm, and it's much better when they're a little too cold. A fan blowing on their face also helps, although it's unclear if this is because of the cooling effect or because it simulates the air blowing on your face when you move.