10 Ways to Keep Seasickness at Bay — My Medicine Cabinet
Key takeaways:
Motion sickness or seasickness is a temporary condition. It develops when your brain receives conflicting signals from your eyes, ears, and body about your location and movement.
Symptoms of seasickness can occur on a boat, in a car, on an amusement park ride, while playing large-screen video games, or while wearing virtual reality goggles.
Over-the-counter products, herbal remedies, and common sense about what you eat and drink can ease the symptoms of seasickness.
Our Medicine Cabinet series explores what real people keep on hand and consider essential for their particular needs — even if a doctor didn’t prescribe it.
Mike Larson spent several years of his late adolescence on a 50-foot wooden boat in the Caribbean. His parents and six younger siblings cruised from island to island from the late 1960s into the early 1970s on a 5-year family adventure in search of a new home.
And yes, there were moments of Larson family seasickness — especially when the seas got rough and the boat rocked for hours.
“My parents went off in search of their place in the sun, and we all got dragged along.”
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That’s how Mike, now retired from real estate, describes his time as the Vulcan’s sailor and navigator. He was 18 at the time. His brothers and sisters ranged in age from 2 to 16 when their boat left Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and sailed to Bermuda and then, into the Caribbean.
“My mom was a registered nurse when we first started out, and she stocked the boat with lots of stuff,” Mike remembers. “We had a mini field hospital on that boat.” Her go-to remedies for sea sickness were over-the-counter antihistamines, like Dramamine and Bonine.
About seasickness
Seasickness is a form of motion sickness that develops while out to sea. It happens when your brain gets different signals from your body about your movement. Your brain constantly gets information from your eyes, ears, and other parts of the body. When the inner ear sends signals that you are moving, but other parts of the body send signals that you are not, it can lead to seasickness.
For example, while sitting on a boat, your brain may get signals that you’re sitting while your inner ear may detect that you’re rocking with the waves in different directions.
These mixed signals create uncomfortable symptoms, including:
Dizziness, disorientation, and difficulty concentrating
Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite
Increased sweating, saliva production, and burping
Yawning, sighing, drowsiness, headache, and tiredness
“What I found out about myself is that I don’t get seasick now if I go out on a boat regularly,” says Mike, who is now a church musician and choir director in Key Largo, Florida. “But if I haven’t been out on the water for a long while and I go out into the ocean where there are lots of waves, I’ll usually get seasick and throw up the first night. After that, the queasiness and symptoms go away for the rest of the trip.”
Taking precautions about what you eat and drink can help the symptoms and queasiness of sea sickness. Here are 10 suggestions that Mike and others have found helpful to prevent and ease seasickness.
Pills vs. patches: Is it better to ease your motion sickness with over-the-counter pills or prescription patches? Here’s what to consider before you decide.
Stomach-soothing advice: Motion sickness doesn’t have to be inevitable. Here are seven science-backed ways to fight off nausea — or even prevent it from happening.
When to get treatment: Learn when to seek emergency care for nausea and vomiting.
1. Take prescription or over-the-counter medications
One of the most common prescription drugs for seasickness in adults is scopolamine. It is worn as a patch on the body and releases medicine slowly through the skin. Apply the patch 3 to 4 hours before travel. These patches are not recommended for children.
There are over-the-counter (OTC) medications that can help, too. These medications include Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) and Bonine (meclizine). Start taking them several hours before you travel or take part in an activity. And take regular doses until your body adjusts. But be careful of a major side effect: drowsiness. Pace yourself and know your limits, because being sleepy or drowsy on a boat or while driving can be dangerous.
2. Wear bands on your wrist
The FDA has approved two types of wristbands that use acupressure or electrical stimulation to manage motion sickness. Elastic cloth bands (such as Sea-Band and Psi Band) feature small studs that are placed over an acupressure point on the wrist that’s linked to motion sickness. According to a 2021 FDA literature review, more than 60% of people who used acupressure bands reported significantly less nausea and/or vomiting. Newer versions (like ReliefBand and Emeterm) stimulate the wrist with small electrical impulses.
3. Focus your eyes on the horizon
On a smaller boat, stay on deck and focus your eyes on the stable horizon. Try not to look at the tossing/turning boat or rising-falling waves. On a cruise ship, you could also ask for an interior cabin. Try closing your eyes or lying down. This helps reduce the amount of visual information being sent to your brain.
4. Ginger or lemon can calm nausea
Ginger has been used for centuries to ease stomach upset. In the Caribbean, Mike remembers island women making a tea of ginger root, hot water, and sugar or honey to soothe upset stomachs. Ginger is available as a tablet or liquid supplement, tea, crystallized candy, or in ginger snap cookies. Inhaling the scent of essential lemon oil also has been found to help with nausea.
5. Avoid or limit alcohol
Alcohol can upset the stomach and make seasickness symptoms worse, according to the CDC. Avoid alcohol while boating or traveling in a vehicle. Save it for festivities when you’re docked, on land, and no longer moving.
6. Pack comfort food and keep it handy
Most of the cooking on a personal boat is done below deck. Without a horizon to focus on, going below into a boat’s galley can make seasickness symptoms worse. Mike and other experienced sailors recommend preparing and packing foods ahead of time so that no one has to spend a lot of time cooking or moving around below. Choose familiar foods to avoid negative reactions to spices, flavors, grease/fat, or unfamiliar cuisines. Eat small bits of food regularly rather than huge meals. If seasickness occurs anyway, try bland foods or proteins to calm your stomach.
7. Even on the water, stay hydrated
The American Academy of Family Physicians recommends drinking plenty of water. Some experts suggest that you avoid taking in a large amount of fluid at one time, because it might cause an upset stomach. Drinking small amounts of water throughout the course of the day can help keep you hydrated.
8. Take deep breaths of fresh air
“If you’re really getting tossed around or it’s really storming, going up on deck and getting some fresh air on your face can really help sometimes,” says Mike, who now sails a 23-foot Hunter sailboat in Key Largo. Strong odors, inability to see the horizon, and lack of ventilation can worsen seasickness symptoms below deck.
9. Don’t smoke
According to the CDC, you can quit smoking — even temporarily — to reduce your susceptibility to motion sickness. If you know you’ll be traveling or doing something else that makes you vulnerable to motion sickness, try to quit smoking before and during your activity.
10. Give your body time to adjust
The good news is that most seasickness symptoms will ease in a day or two. This usually happens once your body adapts to the unusual sensations and conflicting signals. So, get some sleep and be good to your body as it recovers and gets back to normal.
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