Why Does Your Stomach Drop on a Roller Coaster?

Roller coasters are enduringly popular, but they’re clearly not for everyone. Whether you’re an adrenaline junkie who travels from one amusement park to another in search of ever-greater thrills or a reluctant roller coaster-er who spends all your time in line with second thoughts, you’ve surely experienced it: that brief moment during the ride when it feels like your stomach is dropping. 

But what’s actually going on inside your body when this happens? Both a lot and a little, as it turns out.

Anatomy of a Thrill Ride

Roller coasters aren’t the only thing that produces  this lurching sensation, which some find oddly enjoyable and others can’t help having a negative visceral  reaction to. It can also happen when an elevator abruptly descends or you go over a particularly large bump in your car, but tends to be most pronounced on rides with steep, sudden downward descents. 

It isn’t just nerves, though: You’re experiencing a brief moment of near-weightlessness as your body drops faster than your organs. That’s right — the feeling is literally caused by your stomach and intestines catching up to the rest of your body as you ride Space Mountain or any other roller coaster. Because they aren’t anchored to your skeleton, your organs essentially float for a split-second as the rest of your body plummets with the coaster. 

This is pretty similar to  what astronauts experience in zero gravity, as they are technically free-falling toward Earth, albeit on a much smaller scale. The idea that your untethered organs are sloshing around inside you during your thrill ride may unnerve you, but it’s a relatively safe experience. Our bodies evolved to have some wiggle room for a reason, after all. (For one thing, it makes it much easier for us to move around without damaging anything.)

The feeling of your stomach dropping is also caused by your vestibular system — the inner ear’s sensory network responsible for balance and spatial coordination. As you crest a coaster’s peak— your hands either in the air or gripping tightly to the safety bar — your eyes and inner ear register the plunge faster than the rest of your body. 

This leads to a sensory mismatch that skyrockets your adrenaline and might even make you dizzy or otherwise disoriented both during and after the ride. (Pro tip: If you enjoy roller coasters but are prone to nausea, take a non-drowsy motion sickness medication at the beginning of the day — it helps by dampening your brain’s sensory discrepancy.) 

Next time you’re in line with someone who seems nervous about roller coasters, inform them of these perfectly natural mechanisms. Remind them that, when it comes to your body, what goes up must come down — though not necessarily at the same time. This should help them feel better (or freak them out even more). Either way, it’ll make for a great photo on the ride down.