Simulating the motion associated with travel sickness, researchers demonstrated that travel sickness can be significantly reduced simply by travelling more often. Using an optokinetic drum to replicate the symptoms of motion sickness, the researchers monitored thirty four men and women who suffered from travel sickness.

The aim of the study was to find out if the symptoms created at the original exposure to motion sickness are altered or adapted in any way at one month and one year following re-exposure to the drum. At each period, the patients were repeatedly exposed to the motion of the drum until there were no detectable symptoms of travel sickness.

The results of the study revealed that, after the initial exposure, the average degree of travel sickness was rated at 9.23. However, a month later, when the patients were re-tested, the average had dropped to 0.94 - a reduction of approximately 90 per cent. And, when the patients were tested a year later, the patients' symptoms had risen to just 6.88 - which was still 25 per cent better than their original test.

The report suggests that people do tend to adapt to motion sickness to the extent that within just one month, symptoms are virtually gone and that the effects last to a limited degree for a year. The researchers recommend that there is a significant adaptation to motion sickness which is almost completely retained at one month and partially retained one year later, suggesting that the repeated sensation creates some sort of immunity to further stimulation.