Vestibular · motion sensitivity

Optokinetic & VOR practice

Desktop drills for quick head turns, tall swaying visuals, and visually induced dizziness. Local GPU stimuli first — no video compress. MRI-negative / not BPPV framing.

Start here

Recommended · daily path

Start guided session

Warm-up → VOR horizontal → VOR vertical → optokinetic stripes → eye–head or habituation → cool-down with 0–10 nausea log. Stay ≤5/10. About 12–20 minutes.

/optokinetic/session.html

What this is for

When vision and the inner ear disagree — busy visual motion, abrupt head turns, alcohol “unmasking” an off day — you can get nausea, veering, or that sea-sick feeling while still. These drills gently retrain that link (VOR ×1, optokinetic tracking, eye–head substitution, seated habituation). They are not canalith-repositioning maneuvers (no Epley / Semont / Brandt-Daroff here).

Expect weeks 1–2 to feel harder; clearer head turns often show by weeks 3–6. Alcohol may still provoke — do not train intoxicated or hungover.

Nausea gate: rate symptoms 0–10. Stay ≤5 during bouts. Stop the bout if you go above 5; mild “off” usually settles in about 15 minutes. Mild ≤5 is expected training load — strong nausea is too much.

Safety

Not medical advice and not a substitute for your clinician.
Stop for red flags: new neuro signs, sudden hearing loss, true spinning lasting hours, chest pain, uncontrolled vomiting, or neck injury.
Don’t practice while driving, on stairs, or intoxicated.
See vestibular PT if no meaningful improvement in 4–6 weeks.

Skip if: you have acute BPPV spinning attacks your clinician is treating with repositioning — those maneuvers are intentionally omitted from this suite.

Individual drills

VOR ×1 · H & V

VOR ×1 — eyes locked, head turns

On-screen letter target. Eyes stay on the letter while you yaw or pitch the head 20–30°. Bout/rest timers, optional metronome (~102 bpm when tolerated).

/optokinetic/vor-x1.html

Optokinetic · stripes + dot

Horizontal lines + tracking dot

Scrolling B/W stripes with a red tracking dot. Head still first. Duration/speed controls and mid-session nausea check-in.

/optokinetic/horizontal-lines.html

Substitution · gaze shift

Eye–head between targets

Two on-screen targets. Eyes jump first, then the head aligns. Seated desk drill.

/optokinetic/eye-head.html

Habituation · seated mini-MST

Seated habituation checklist

Brisk horizontal/vertical head turns and look-over-shoulder items. Rate 0–10 after each. Chair spin optional/skip.

/optokinetic/habituation.html

Optional references

Prefer the local drills above. These are background reading / comparison only.

Explainer

Optokinetic training for visual dizziness

Fauquier ENT — context for how clinics use OKN drills.

youtube.com/watch?v=rZok6mZnhwQ

Library

optokinetic.org graded clips

Progressive smooth-pursuit / OKN videos if you want variety later.

optokinetic.org