Motion sickness affects many people when they ride in cars and on boats but perhaps the most inconvenient place to experience it is on a plane. Referred to as airsickness, it can be terribly inconvenient to be trapped on an airplane unable to get up from your seat when you are feeling nauseous.

Airsickness is nothing to be embarrassed about, in fact almost 29% of all pilots even experience it! This is a normal body response to an unusual stimulus. Your eyes are seeing that you are sitting in one place but your ears or “vestibular organs” can feel that you are moving up and down. The result can be dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea, burping and increased salivation.

Since airsickness is a problem for millions of travelers as well as pilots, there have been many studies done to determine how to avoid the affects of this problem. Below are some tips that have been learned through the studies, perhaps they can help you avoid airsickness on your next flight.

1. Don’t fly when you are stressed out. According to these studies the two most common causes of airsickness are anxieties and stress. If you are already stressed out before you even board the plane, your chances of experiencing airsickness are increased because your body already has too much to deal with and will have a hard time adjusting to the sudden change of environment. But who isn’t stressed out these days? Since stress may be hard to avoid, you might try learning some stress reduction techniques or change things in your life that are stressful. These can help you in everyday life but also will help to make your flight more enjoyable.

2. Don’t overeat before flying. OK, so if you know you get airsick you probably already feel queasy just thinking about getting on the plane so overeating probably isn’t going to be a problem for you. However, some folks might want to eat up before they get on the plane and it’s thought that large meals, especially ones loaded with salt, might trigger airsickness.

3. Don’t move around too much in flight. Well, it stands to reason that if you have motion sickness, adding more motion into the mix will make you feel worse so if you are already feeling the affects of airsickness just stay put in your seat.

4. Don’t worry, be happy. If you get airsick, there really isn’t a lot you can do about it but if you let the anticipation of being airsick get you into a frenzy then your experience will probably be much worse. The best thing to do is just accept the fact that you might feel a little motion sick and let your body and mind become accustomed to the environment. If you approach it with a relaxed attitude, you may even start to enjoy yourself after a few hours into the flight.

Airsickness is not a huge problem and shouldn’t get in the way of you flying off for an exotic vacation. You just need to relax and learn to adjust the body’s condition so as to avoid conflict of senses.