# Dizzy, tired and rocking motion after a 4 day rail trek



## sodium (Feb 26, 2016)

Is this feeling normal after getting off a long train ride? I've been off the train for about 3 hours now and I still feel like I'm rocking back and forth.


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## AmtrakBlue (Feb 26, 2016)

Could be. Similar to cruises. I've never taken a cruise, but do remember my mom saying she watched the house across the street "sail" down the street from her kitchen window a day or two after she got back from a cruise. :giggle:

I slept on our cabin cruiser when I was a kid and the next day at church I was still rocking back and forth.


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## Ryan (Feb 26, 2016)

Yep. Your body gets used to compensating for the motion and gets confused when it goes away.

Happened to me all the time on the ship, it'll pass shortly.


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## crabby_appleton1950 (Feb 26, 2016)

sodium said:


> Is this feeling normal after getting off a long train ride?


Just curious, how long your ride was?


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## Devil's Advocate (Feb 26, 2016)

Feeling like crap after multiple days of continuous traveling is normal so take it with a grain of salt.


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## HenryK (Feb 26, 2016)

Many of us have thrumming sensations in our legs for two or three days after a train trip. It's a neurological condition that isn't very serious but can get more intense the older one gets.


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## tim49424 (Feb 26, 2016)

My first half dozen trips, after getting home I was hearing train horns in my head all the time and I lived in a community where there was a "no blow zone" ordinance.

Also after LD trips to the west coast, I've experienced the equivalent to jet lag so yes I was tired but never dizzy or felt a rocking motion after a trip.


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## AmtrakBlue (Feb 26, 2016)

crabby_appleton1950 said:


> sodium said:
> 
> 
> > Is this feeling normal after getting off a long train ride?
> ...


It's in the title of the thread - 4 days


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## Cina (Feb 26, 2016)

Yeah, I get that after a couple days on the train. It's always amazing how solid the earth is to me after so long in a wobbling can on wheels. Not sure it takes three hours to get over it for me, maybe an hour or two.


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## Trainmans daughter (Feb 26, 2016)

I have that rocking motion for a day or two after a long train trip. I feel like I'm still on the train, so it's kind of fun.


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## Anderson (Feb 26, 2016)

Been there, done that...this is normal, give it a day or two and it wears off.


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## FormerOBS (Feb 26, 2016)

It probably has a lot of names. We always called it "train feet". It'll go away after a while. Various duration for different people. When it's your job, it eventually goes away or becomes unnoticeable. When I had been working for Amtrak over 15 years, I took several months off for neck surgery and a hip replacement. After my first trip following the extended leave, I had train feet for the first time in years. But I never had the condition again.

Tom


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## sodium (Feb 26, 2016)

Thanks for the replies, I thought I was getting sick but it seems like its the norm. I'm glad I took my train trip home from NY to SF instead of first. But I actually think I might be coming down with something. I heard a lot of people coughing on board and one lady seated next to me during a lunch stated she upgraded to a sleeping unit because she came down with something and wasn't feeling too well 

I feel bad for an old timer couple who I was seated with during a meal. They did the exact same trip as I but they were coming to SF as the start of their trip to visit some family. I know they are going to be feeling the effects if I did. I'm half their age.


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## TinCan782 (Feb 27, 2016)

I spent three years on a destroyer...motion sickness not a problem both during and after.

I have noticed after a couple of ocean fishing trips that I'd experience that phenomena only while in the shower after getting back home. The running water was triggering it!

I remember, as a kid, after roller skating for a long time, after taking the skates off, it felt like I was still on skates.


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## Triley (Feb 27, 2016)

FormerOBS said:


> It probably has a lot of names. We always called it "train feet". It'll go away after a while. Various duration for different people. When it's your job, it eventually goes away or becomes unnoticeable. When I had been working for Amtrak over 15 years, I took several months off for neck surgery and a hip replacement. After my first trip following the extended leave, I had train feet for the first time in years. But I never had the condition again.
> 
> Tom


You didn't have to experience it, but working the Acelas are horrible. Our Boston based ones are seventeen hour days including the report time and roughly two hour layover, so it may be more noticeable for us. But when I first started, after a trip, I'd be laying in bed and swear the bed was swaying.


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## Alexandria Nick (Feb 27, 2016)

I get something like that after I fly. I'll have this feeling of...surging. Like I'm moving forward quickly, then slowing down, then speeding up again. It usually goes away after I sleep.

Oddly, I also had it happen after I experienced my first earthquake. For a week or so, I'd get this feeling that I'd liken to what riding the subway feels like, because that's what the earthquake felt like. It would startle me, then go away. Except one time it was an aftershock.


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## west point (Feb 27, 2016)

Another result is when viewing out the rear of a train after stopping the eyes still think you are going backwards.


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## NW cannonball (Feb 27, 2016)

Something like what they used to call "sea legs" that sailors would get. When they'd get ashore they'd have trouble walking on flat steady land, and would look kinda drunk to casual observers, possibly leading to the mostly false idea that sailors on shore are mostly drunk (it aint so)

Me, never had problems with adjusting from or to planes, trains, buses, nor small boats (nor with motion sickness) -- I've been lucky that way.

Unlike my sailor daughter though, I can't and won't ride those "midway attractions" that spin you three ways at once a hundred feet in the air.

There's so much individual variation on how people react to motion -- from fighter pilots that seem to like turning 3-D fast turns in the air -- to people who get uncomfortable with a short ride on the light rail.

One of my memories from pre-Amtrak days, I was maybe 8 years old -- "How can that conductor walk down the aisle and never fall over and never grab anything?"

YMMV


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## AmtrakBlue (Feb 27, 2016)

I've never felt sick from riding trains or planes. I probably have had some motion sensations after getting off the train, but not enough, or long enough, to remember.

I, too, remember how I'd feel like I was still wearing my roller skates after taking them off. Same thing (feeling taller than I am) after getting off a horse.

As others have said, we're all different and experience things differently.

My only "problem" on the trains is a dry bloody nose so I now take saline solution with me on trips.


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## PRR 60 (Feb 27, 2016)

From Wikipedia:



> *Sea legs, dock rock, or stillness illness*
> 
> After being on a small boat for a few hours and then going back onto land, it may feel like there is still rising and falling, as if one is still on the boat. It can also occur on other situations, such as after a _*long train journey*_. It is not clear whether sea legs is a form of aftereffect to the predominant frequency of the stimulation (e.g., the waves or the rocking of the train), whether it is a form of learning to adjust one's gait and posture, or whether it is a form of the Tetris effect.


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## Phil S (Feb 27, 2016)

Never got it from trains but definitely from boats, actually ships. Small boats mostly bounce and lurch, ships mostly wallow. As for ill effects of any sort, never from trains. Occasional sea sickness. Never air sickness. That said, I come down with what we call "kennel cough" about 1/2 the time I fly -- as for dogs, being cooped up in a small space with many other people and a completely inadequate air supply, respiratory disease runs rampant. One of many reasons I prefer trains (or ships, but not buses) to flying. .


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## neroden (Feb 27, 2016)

Some people get motion sickness from trains. I don't, even though I get it on ships and in cars and buses and planes. I suspect it's because trains have strictly *rolling* motions, and I'm only bothered by yaw and pitch.


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## me_little_me (Feb 27, 2016)

I get off at every "smoke stop" not to smoke but just to walk around near my car - that means every 3-4 hours. I never have a problem.


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## Thirdrail7 (Feb 27, 2016)

Sometimes, I still feel like I'm on the train when I'm at home. It takes time to adjust.


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## Chey (Feb 28, 2016)

I usually have that swaying/rocking sensation for a day or so after a LD train trip. It's especially noticeable when I lay down to sleep. I've always kind of liked it, it actually helps me sleep.


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## chakk (Feb 28, 2016)

No rocking or rolling for me after trips, but then again I always get off at smoke stops in daylight to walk around and get some fresh outdoor air. Only exception is if it is pouring rain outside. Then I will stay onboard.


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## Skyline (Feb 29, 2016)

Let me try this without offending anyone...

One of the great challenges of train travel, at least for us guys, is standing up trying to use a toilet while the train is rolling/bouncing/swaying. But you get used to it, and your "aim" improves with practice.

Problem is, when you get to a destination or return home, if you've been riding trains for several days, you still get the same sensation of trying to keep your balance while attempting #1. But again, you get used to it.

Um, YMMV.

_Yeah, I know, we could sit down too but that just doesn't seem natural._


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## sodium (Feb 29, 2016)

Night 2 after getting off the train, I awoke at 4am and thought I was still on the train. I sat up and my head felt as I was still rocking back and forth and I could hear the sounds of the train ride in my head. Day 3, I'm still a little worn from the traveling. Don't know if it was from my week long stay in NY or the 4 day train ride.


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## inspiration100 (Mar 1, 2016)

To my knowledge, this is pretty common. For me, it becomes more noticeable if I'm walking around the train a lot while it's moving. When I was younger, I'd get it more severe than I do now since now I'm sitting more of the time.


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