Question: why do we feel dizzy when we spin

Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez answered on 18 Mar 2014:

Hi @pop112

I don’t want to alarm you, but the reason for that is that we have fluids in our ears!

And I am not talking about water, like when you go to the swimming pool and you have water stuck in your ear, but a fluid that our body creates to help us keep our balance.

See, the inner part of our ears are filled with this fluid that help the brain determine the position of our body and keep our balance. As we move, lean or go upside down, the fluid tracks our movement and moves in the same way as we do. As the fluid moves, it bends these tiny hair-like extensions in our ears that are responsible for sending messages to our brain and help it determine our balance. What happens when you spin is that the fluid inside your ears spins with you and sends a lot of confusing messages to your brain. The problem is that when you stop, the fluid doesn’t stop with you and keeps swirling inside your ears, which is the reason why you also feel dizzy afterwards.

Of course, the ears are not the only organ responsible for your balance and they work together with your eyes to tell the brain what is going on. One of the reasons why you get sick on a boat or a plane is that the ear and your eyes send different signals to your brain, the eyes telling it that everything is fine and the fluid in your ear moving around telling it that there is a lot of movement 🙂