Motion Sickness and Binocular Vision Dysfunction

Motion sickness is the name used to describe nausea and/or vomiting that occurs in people traveling by car, boat, plane, or train. It is extremely common, with studies suggesting that as many as 1 in 3 people are highly susceptible to the condition. This risk could be even greater if you also suffer from another issue called binocular vision dysfunction, or BVD for short.  

 

What Are the Symptoms of Motion Sickness?

People who have motion sickness can experience a wide range of different symptoms. These include, but aren’t limited to:
 

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Dizziness

• Feeling off-balance

• Feeling as though everything around you is moving/swaying

• Burping

• Panic

• Headache

• Fatigue/drowsiness
  
   

Motion sickness is rarely serious, but it can be very debilitating and even embarrassing. Fortunately, there are things that can be done to minimize the effect that it has on your life.

 

What Causes Motion Sickness?

Motion sickness usually occurs when your brain can’t make sense of the sensory information it receives from your eyes, ears, and musculoskeletal system. It also can’t make sense of any physical sensations that you are experiencing, or any pain that you are experiencing. All the signals become jumbled up as they reach your brain, confusing it and making it harder for it to react appropriately.
 

In most cases, the primary cause of motion sickness stems from misinterpretations by the visual and inner ear systems. When the information that your brain is receiving is conflicting, the person will very likely experience motion sickness. People who have a functional visual problem, such as binocular vision dysfunction (BVD) receive inaccurate visual information that can result in a range of symptoms and disorders, including motion sickness.

 

What’s BVD?

In an ideal world, we would all have a pair of eyes that are perfectly aligned and work together seamlessly to create a single, clear image. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Binocular Vision Dysfunction occurs when the eyes aren’t perfectly aligned and instead create two separate images in different planes. Nevertheless, the brain will try and correct the anomaly which puts huge strain onto the main nerve connecting the eyes and brain – called the trigeminal nerve. This results in a range of unpleasant symptoms, from eye strain and fatigue to motion sickness.

 

Why Are People with BVD Likely to Experience Motion Sickness?

When someone is traveling or in a mode of transportation, it results in the usual stimuli we are surrounded by being sped up, and the brain can find this even harder to cope with than usual. This is what causes the symptoms associated with BVD and is why things like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and sweaty palms are particularly common in people with the condition when they travel – creating motion sickness.

 

To learn more about motion sickness and binocular vision dysfunction, contact The Dizziness and Headache Optometry Center in Santa Barbara, California at (805) 626-3400 to schedule a consultation.  

 

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