Have you ever experienced motion sickness? You know, riding in a car with that nauseous, head-swimming feeling? If you have, I have some good news. You can thank the researchers of this study…and the participants who volunteered to endure having carsickness induced on purpose (who does that?).

Participants in this study were divided into six groups. All groups experienced carsickness. After having carsickness induced and reporting their level of carsickness, they all stopped moving. Four groups listened to 60 seconds of music and one group had no intervention. That’s only 5 of the 6 groups. The last group got to stop when they had the sense that “they might feel slightly carsick.” (I want to be in the last group.) This group provided a “comparative sample for the EEG data.” What did they discover?

• Joyful music reduced carsick symptoms by 57.3% in 60 seconds.
• Soft music reduced carsick symptoms by 56.7%.
• Passionate music reduced carsick symptoms by 48.3%.
• The no intervention group also experienced a 43.3% reduction in carsick symptoms in the 60 second time frame.
• Sad music actually proved less effective than no intervention, reducing carsick symptoms by only 40%.

If you’re like me, I’d like a 100% reduction in symptoms. But joyful and soft music did reduce symptoms to a significantly more than no intervention, and in only 60 seconds. So maybe music can make the symptoms disappear more quickly.

I bring this study to your attention in a family blog because there is only one thing worse than having carsickness yourself. That’s having a child with carsickness who throws up in the back seat. That’s enough to make anyone carsick. So, if you’re looking for a non-pharmaceutical, low-cost way to help reduce symptoms of carsickness, give music a try. Put together a fun playlist of joyful and soft music. Play it while you drive and play it for a couple more minutes when you stop.

And, once again, I want to give a shout-out to those participants who volunteered to experience carsickness on purpose to make this research possible. Thank you.