Ever had escalator sickness?

HAVE you ever stepped on to a broken escalator and felt as if you were going to fall straight off?

You’re not alone — so many people report dizziness and feelings of vertigo when they step on to a stationary escalator that the phenomenon has a name: the Walker Effect.

Scientists describe the feeling as when ‘one experiences an odd sensation of imbalance, despite full awareness that the escalator is not going to move’.

It arises because of the ‘dissociation between the declarative and procedural systems’ in the central nervous system. In other words, the brain experiences a temporary disconnect between what it is expecting — for the body to feel the sensation of moving — and what is actually happening.