iPhones Have A Built-In Motion Sickness Feature That No One Knows About

Now you can doomscroll from the backseat without feeling like you're going to be ill (from looking at your screen, anyway).

Anyone who has ever sat in the back of a car or bus probably understands the motion sickness ― nausea, headache and dizziness ― that can come from reading a book or staring at a screen while in a moving vehicle. Research says it’s quite common, with 59% of people reporting experiencing the phenomena either in adulthood or childhood.

If anything, the advent of smartphones makes motion sickness even more common. Who hasn’t checked emails and social media as they ride in the passenger seat?

Motion sickness stems from our balance system, which is “made up of a few different parts, including your vision ... your inner ear, as well as balance sensors in all of your muscles throughout your body,” said Dr. Mohamed Elrakhawy, an assistant professor in the department of otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

“And all that information has to come together, and the brain has to integrate it to make sense of it so that you have a good sense of where you are in space and if you’re moving, what direction you’re moving,” he added.

When motion sickness happens, the theory is there’s a disconnect between what your eyes are seeing and what your inner ears are feeling, Elrakhawy noted. In other words, there’s confusion among these senses.