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By Ashish
Your brain keeps your
muscles engaged to account for small movements of the vehicle to ensure that
your posture is properly maintained.
These small movements
cause your muscles to constantly work, which makes them tired over a long
journey.
I have a few friends
who like to go on long road trips. They want to just hop in their cars and
drive a few hundred miles without a care in the world!
Me? I’m not like that
at all.
Those people who do
find me shying away from road trips simply because I find them too tiring often
ask me what my deal is with traveling long distances in cars or by bus.
I admit that I have,
more than once, given a lot of thought to this — why do people get tired when
they travel long distances in certain vehicles?
They’re basically
just sitting there, doing nothing, right? Why should that be any different than
sitting in a train or even sitting in a chair in your house?
Note: The feeling of
tiredness in cars, buses or even airplanes is quite subjective, and as such,
may not apply in every case.
There may be people
who DO NOT find traveling in a bus over long distances tiring.
This article only
presents a few factors that largely contribute to making one feel tired after a
long journey in a car, bus or commercial jet.
Factors that impact
passenger comfort on the road
When you’re traveling
on a road, your car/bus is bound to accelerate/decelerate countless times,
thanks to the natural flow of traffic.
A bus changes its speed many times, causing its passengers to feel this movement/pulse in very subtle ways. |
In addition to the
umpteen turns, swaying and constant changes in speed, there are a few other
factors at play, such as the condition of the automobile, passenger seats and
even the quality of the roads.
All of these factors
have a cumulative effect on passenger comfort.
You don’t realize it
actively, but the constant sways and changes in speed cause you to remain
upright.
Your brain keeps your
muscles engaged to account for these movements of the vehicle to ensure that
your posture is properly maintained.
This guy probably wouldn’t look so upbeat if he were to sit in the same seat for 10 hours or more, thanks to the tiredness that almost feels inherent on such long road journeys. |
Just because you
don’t realize it actively, that doesn’t mean your muscles are just ‘sitting’
there, doing nothing.
In fact, this is the
reason why standing still hurts your legs more than walking.
Here’s an interesting
fact: Greger Huttu — a world champion of iRacing (a virtual racing simulator) —
was invited to drive a real race car.
He went a few laps
very fast (nearly 100mph), but then threw up in his helmet because his body
couldn’t handle the tremendous physical forces acting on it. He gave up in his
15th lap.
Believe it or not, but car racing can be very tiring… physically. |
Trains, on the other
hand, are comparatively less tiring.
The reason is simple:
they don’t accelerate/decelerate and change directions as frequently as
automobiles on the road. Thus, train journeys aren’t that tiring.
Fatigue-causing
factors in a flight
Flights are no better
when it comes to causing fatigue.
One might say that
airplanes don’t experience rapid changes in speeds like cars do, so traveling
in airplanes shouldn’t be so tiring, right?
Well, there are other
factors that wear you out in a plane.
First, there’s the
‘height’ thing… your body has to adjust to being higher up really quick.
Although the cabin
pressure makes it a little easier for your body to adjust to the altitude
change, it still is far from what you’d call ‘normal’, i.e., something you
experience sitting in a chair in your bedroom.
Then, there’s the
case of dehydration.
In order to maintain
pressure within the cabin, airlines must closely regulate the air inside. This
involves changing the composition of the breathable air inside the cabin.
Cabin air is drier than ‘normal’ air. |
Furthermore, you
can’t forget the way a plane moves.
All that noise,
shuddering, rolling, turbulence and other vibrations you experience during a
flight are not natural movements for the human body.
The body constantly
tries to stabilize itself, which causes fatigue, which is why you feel tired
after a long flight, even though on the surface it looks as though you were
just sitting there in your seat doing nothing.
The psychological
factor
One cannot disregard
the psychological aspect of traveling over long distances. The very idea of
traveling wears a lot of people out.
When traveling on a
flight, you’re probably a bit conscious of yourself and your surroundings.
In other words,
you’re constantly on ‘alert’ or worried, which is not (most) people’s natural
state of mind. This adds to the mental exhaustion of traveling for hours in a
flight.
That’s why business
class in flights is such a popular thing. You get more space up there, and it’s
way more comfortable.
The whole point of
business class is to make you feel at home, so that you’re well rested and
ready to work the moment you step off the aircraft.
The feeling of
tiredness is very subjective, however, and differs from one person to another.
For those people who
DO get tired during long road trips or flights, these are some of the key
factors that contribute to their fatigue.
Ashish is
a Science graduate (Bachelor of Science) from Punjabi University (India). He
spends a lot of time watching movies, and an awful lot more time discussing
them. He likes Harry Potter and the Avengers, and obsesses over how thoroughly
Science dictates every aspect of life… in this universe, at least.
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https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/travel-fatigue-why-does-traveling-tire-you-out.html
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