Vestibular · ENT exercise
Optokinetic eye-tracking
The rotating-cylinder / moving-line exercise for sea sickness and visually induced motion sensitivity. Prefer the local full-screen drill when YouTube looks soft or choppy on a high-DPI display.
What this is
Your ENT is using optokinetic training (classically done with an optokinetic drum — a spinning cylinder with stripes). You track the drifting lines with your eyes, then reverse direction.
That drills the link between vision and the inner ear. When that link is out of practice, busy visual motion (waves, traffic, grocery aisles) can trigger nausea and “sea sick” feelings even when you are still.
At home, a full-screen video of moving stripes is the usual substitute for the physical drum.
How to practice
Use your ENT’s dose if they gave one. A common starting pattern:
- Sit upright in a stable chair. Head still unless instructed otherwise.
- Full-screen a video. Hold the phone/tablet at a comfortable reading distance, or use a monitor.
- For the horizontal lines + tracking dot drill: keep eyes on the red dot as it moves left ↔ right (head still unless your ENT says otherwise).
- Default session length is 4 minutes (same order as the reference video); shorten or stop early if symptoms climb past mild.
- Stop or pause if symptoms go from mild to moderate. Mild “off” is expected; strong nausea is too much.
Progress later (only if you tolerate the basics): longer sessions, faster motion, or slow head turns while watching.
Practice here (local, sharp)
Videos (big tap targets)
Tips that help
- Do it when you are not already nauseated (before a boat day is better than mid-episode).
- Consistent short sessions beat rare long ones.
- If a video is too aggressive, lower brightness, sit farther back, or use a slower clip from the library.
- Keep a note of which direction or speed bothers you more — useful for the next ENT visit.