Humans Love Spinning — And Researchers Want to Know Why

If you regularly ignored a playground’s monkey bars, seesaw and slide — and instead made a beeline straight to the merry-go-round — you’re likely familiar with the intoxicatingly dizzy feeling that accompanies a good spin session.

The light-headedness may come with a touch of vertigo, causing the world to tilt around you, or even bring on feelings of sudden elation. Sufi whirling dervishes take advantage of these effects, in fact, as a form of meditation and to induce spiritual experiences. When a person twists and twirls, the fluid inside their inner ears is moving, too. Actually, the fluid continues to move — bumping into minuscule hair cells and sending messages to the brain — even after the rest of the body comes to a stop.

This miscommunication between brain and body is typically what causes that dizzy feeling, and can even bring on physiological “highs” at high enough speeds. So go ahead, take a few extra turns in your office computer chair when no one is watching!