A 2025 study found average motion-sickness reductions of 57.3% with joyful music and 56.7% with soft music—but only in a small driving-simulator experiment. The results do not establish that music cuts travel sickness by more than half for passengers generally. They suggest that enjoyable music may be worth trying, not that it is a proven remedy.
What the 2025 study found
Li and colleagues tested four music conditions in a simulated driving environment and compared them with a natural-recovery control. The study, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience on September 3, 2025, collected EEG data from 30 people. Its reported average reductions were:
| Condition | Reported average reduction |
|---|---|
| Joyful music | 57.3% |
| Soft music | 56.7% |
| Stirring music | 48.3% |
| Natural-recovery control | 43.3% |
| Sad music | 40% |
These figures describe the study’s averages for its particular experiment, not the share of travelers who will feel better or the expected reduction on a real journey. The control group’s 43.3% average reduction also shows why the music results should not be read as the full effect of music alone: symptoms may ease during a recovery period without the tested music.
The study also reported 85.6% accuracy for its best-performing occipital-lobe BPNN recognition model. That is a measure of the model’s classification performance, not evidence that music relieved symptoms in 85.6% of participants.
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Why the findings are preliminary
Participants were 20–30 years old and selected for moderate susceptibility to motion sickness. The experiment took place in a simulator, which may not reproduce the conditions of ordinary road travel. The authors describe the sample as small and report statistical power of 29%; they call for larger samples and studies in real vehicles. Those limits make it difficult to know whether the averages would hold across different ages, susceptibility levels, music preferences, or travel conditions.
In particular, the 57.3% and 56.7% figures are not guarantees, and the study does not show that a particular genre works for everyone. The lower average reported for sad music was below the natural-recovery control, a reminder that music’s effects may depend on the kind of music and the listener.
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Does liking the music matter?
An earlier randomized study by Keshavarz and colleagues examined visually induced motion sickness, not sickness during ordinary travel. Ninety-three volunteers watched an approximately 14-minute bicycle-ride video while listening to relaxing, neutral, or stressful music, or no music. The authors reported an overall trend toward less sickness with relaxing music. When they accounted for how pleasant participants found the music, significant reduction appeared only when the music was perceived as pleasant, regardless of its type. This supports considering personal enjoyment, while the different setting means it does not confirm the simulator findings for car passengers. Read the study abstract on PubMed.
What another in-car study can—and cannot—tell us
A 2025 passenger-car study tested a combined system of dynamic visual cues, relaxing music, perfume, and ventilation with 53 front passengers who were gaming. Its abstract reports no significant overall improvement in subjective assessments or physiological measures; the combination appeared more effective for participants with low susceptibility than for those with mid-to-high susceptibility. Because several interventions were bundled, the study cannot isolate music’s contribution. It does not establish that an in-car music system treats motion sickness. Read the study abstract on PubMed.
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A sensible way for passengers to try music
If you are a passenger and want to experiment, choose music you enjoy—perhaps something soft or joyful—and see whether it helps you. Treat it as a personal experiment, not a dependable treatment: the available evidence does not establish a reliable effect during real-world travel or identify a genre that works for everyone.
The simulator study did not test headphones or assess driver safety. It therefore gives no basis for recommending that drivers wear headphones or that a particular playback accessory prevents sickness. Read Li and colleagues’ 2025 study.
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