You know the feeling. After a long hard day of working, maybe with a bit more stress, or bad posture, and you feel it coming on. It wraps around your head like a vice, causes neck and shoulder pain, and puts you in an absolutely foul mood. It’s a good old tension headache. So what IS a tension headache? What causes a tension headache? And what can you do to manage it?

Tension headaches always come by right when you don’t need them!

Tension headaches can be common or only affect you at certain points, like during times of stress and when you’re extremely busy. Which is exactly the time that we don’t need them!

A tension headache is actually the most common type of headache. According to Headache Australia (a division of the Brain Foundation), tension headaches can affect up to 36% of men and 42% of women (1). Research has not yet managed to establish the root cause of tension headaches. Stress, however, is usually referred to as a common cause. The Mayo Clinic states that there are two main divisions of tension headaches, episodic and chronic. As the name suggests, episodic tension headaches occur less frequently than chronic, lasting from as short a time as 15 minutes, up to a week. Chronic tension headaches, on the other hand, occur more often, lasting hours, possibly days at a time, for more than 15 days each month (2). Imagine having a headache for half the time of each month!

Tension headaches affect 42% of women and 36% of men.

As mentioned above, the most commonly assumed cause of tension headaches is stress. Poor posture has also been identified as a possible cause of tension headaches. When you’re sitting all day at work on a computer, slumping because you’re tired, it’s likely that the muscles in your neck, shoulders, and back will start to tense up. Muscles don’t like being still for long periods of time. This is why doctors recommend standing up from your desk every half hour and moving around. If your neck muscles and shoulder muscles become very tense, they can actually cause the muscles in the base of your skull to tense up as well. In my experience as a massage therapist, the pain and tension from tension headaches most commonly starts at the base of the skull. When these muscles take more strain than they are built for, they start asking for help from other muscles around where they are, such as the muscles in the front of the neck. These muscles then refer onto the jaw, and the jaw onto the temple, and hey presto, there’s your tension headache. The muscles at the base of the skull can also refer from the base of your skull across the top of your head, into your forehead. These tiny little muscles, only about 3cms (1 inch) long each, cause so many issues!

These tiny muscles tighten up and cause tension headaches. They’re only an inch long!

As there is no official test for diagnosing tension headaches, there’s no official treatment method either. Depending on the cause of the headache, the treatment process will likely be different. For headaches caused by stress, reducing the stress can help minimise the headache. Simple steps such as the following may help:

Meditation is a good way to manage stress that causes tension headaches

• Drinking 8 glasses of water a day
• Getting 8-9 hours of sleep
• Minimising coffee, alcohol, and smoking intake
• Eating a healthy, balanced diet
• Taking regular breaks from screens
• Managing mental stress with meditation and mindfulness exercises

In the case that the headache stems from issues with poor posture, stretching, exercise, and massage may help. I know I have seen many clients lately with tension in their neck muscles causing headaches, and being able to release those muscles at the base of the skull has definitely helped them. 

The following stretches may assist in easing tension headaches. Hold each for 30 seconds then do them on the other side. 

Sniff the armpit:

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Rotate head 90 degrees in one direction

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Look down at 45 degrees, so that your nose is pointing towards your armpit (hence the name)

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Using the arm you’re facing, pull gently on the top of your head downwards until you feel a stretch. Hold for 30 seconds and swap sides.

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Ear to shoulder:

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Head facing forwards, tip your ear towards your shoulder

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Using the arm you’re leaning towards, pull gently on your head until you feel a stretch. Hold for 30 seconds and then swap sides.

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“Alas”: 

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Turn your head 45 degrees towards the direction you want to stretch

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Tip your head towards the sky, at about a 45 degree angle

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Using the back of your opposite hand, pull your head gently until you feel a stretch through the side front of your neck. Hold for 30 seconds then swap sides.

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Tension headaches suck, but they’re very common, so learning how to manage them is very important. If you’re concerned that your headache is more than just a regular tension headache, then go and see your local GP. 

Now for my question of the week! Do you get headaches very often and if so, what do you do to manage them? Write your response in the comments below!

Source 1: https://headacheaustralia.org.au/headachetypes/tension-type-headache/ 

Source 2: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tension-headache/symptoms-causes/syc-20353977