Certain music genres cut motion sickness in driving simulator by up to 57%, study finds
Researchers who monitored brainwaves of 30 carsick-prone volunteers say upbeat and soft music eased symptoms, while sad songs offered less relief
A small study using a driving simulator found that listening to upbeat or soft music for one minute reduced motion sickness symptoms by more than half, while sad songs were less effective and in one measure performed worse than no music at all.
Researchers at Southwest University in China monitored brain activity with 64‑electrode caps as 30 volunteers prone to carsickness were exposed to a nausea‑inducing simulated drive. When participants reported queasiness, they were divided into four groups and listened to 60 seconds of music categorized as upbeat, soft, passionate or sad; a control group heard no music and was allowed to recover naturally.
The investigators reported that upbeat music reduced motion sickness symptoms by 57.3% and soft music by 56.7%. Passionate music produced a 48.3% reduction. Songs classified as sad produced a 40% reduction in symptoms, which the team said was 3.3 percentage points worse than the control condition in which participants listened to no music after feeling sick.
“Motion sickness significantly impairs the travel experience for many individuals, and existing pharmacological interventions often carry side‑effects such as drowsiness,” said Dr. Qizong Yue, a co‑author of the study. “Music represents a non‑invasive, low‑cost, and personalized intervention strategy.”
Brainwave recordings provided physiological backing for participants’ reports. Electrical activity in the occipital lobe — the visual processing center implicated in motion‑sickness generation — became less active and less complex when participants felt sick. As participants’ subjective symptoms improved after listening to music, occipital activity increased and regained complexity, the researchers said.
The study authors suggested different mechanisms for the benefits of particular music types. Soft music may alleviate nausea by reducing tension and calming neural circuits, while joyful music could engage the brain’s reward system and distract from discomfort. Sad music may exacerbate negative affect and impede recovery, they wrote.
Despite the reported reductions, the researchers cautioned that the study has important limitations. The sample comprised 30 volunteers aged 20 to 30, the experiments were performed in a driving simulator rather than on real roads, and the team acknowledged that individual music preferences may influence outcomes. The authors said they plan to expand the sample size, examine responses across broader age ranges and test the effects of music during real travel.
The findings add to a small but growing body of work exploring auditory approaches to motion‑sickness prevention. Earlier this year, researchers in Japan reported a method they called “sound spice,” which uses a specific soundwave to stimulate the inner ear and reduce nausea and dizziness. “The effective sound level falls within the range of everyday environmental noise exposure, suggesting that the sound technology is both effective and safe,” said Takumi Kagawa, the lead researcher on that project.
Motion sickness affects a large portion of the population at some point in life and can limit travel comfort and safety. The study’s authors framed music as a potentially accessible countermeasure that avoids some side effects of drugs used to treat motion sickness, but they urged replication and extension of their findings before recommending specific listening strategies for travellers.
For now, the researchers suggested that passengers who begin to feel queasy might try cheerful or gentle music and avoid sad songs, while noting that personal taste could alter effectiveness. Further field testing and larger clinical samples will be required to determine whether short music interventions can reliably reduce motion sickness across different vehicles, ages and individual preferences.
