Headaches can be caused by many factors — but where you feel your headache can indicate what the true trigger is.
Experts say that the location of your headache — whether it’s felt in your forehead, temples, behind the eyes or the back or side of the head — all have different meanings, and there are different ways to treat each type of headache.
‘Hatband’
If you are experiencing a “hatband” headache — in which pain is felt around the back of the head, the temples and the forehead, as if a tight hat is squeezing the head — you likely have a tension headache.
Tension-type headaches are the most common type of primary headache, according to the World Health Organization. They typically begin in your teenage years and affect three women to every two men.
TTH pain is typically described as pressure, dullness, and tightness and mostly results from muscle tension in the shoulders, neck, scalp or jaw. It can typically last a few hours but can sometimes continue for several days.
Pain is typically mild to severe and often comes without warning. Sometimes, TTH discomfort goes hand in hand with migraines, and they can also trigger each other.
Experts believe tension headaches are mainly caused by stress, according to the National Institute of Health. Other causes could include depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, alcohol use and skipping meals.
Side of head
A moderate to severe headache on one side of the head is most likely a migraine.
According to the American Migraine Foundation, 1 billion people worldwide are affected by migraines — and they’re the second leading cause of all global disability.
Migraines affect one in four American households and are the third most common disease in the world.
A 2018 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that women were twice as likely as men to experience migraines or severe headaches.
Common symptoms of migraines include nausea or vomiting; yawning, fatigue or difficulty sleeping; sensitivity to light, sound and smell; and mood changes.
Experts believe migraines could also be hereditary, as they tend to run in families, according to the American Migraine Foundation.
However, no two migraine experiences are ever the same.
Pain can last anywhere from four to 72 hours and can get worse with physical activity. Currently, there is no cure for migraines.
Pain on one side of the head can also be the result of a hormonal headache, also called a menstrual migraine, which occurs before or during a woman’s period, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Symptoms of hormonal headaches often include dull throbbing or severe pulsing, sensitivity to light, nausea, fatigue and dizziness.
Behind the eye
Pain from cluster headaches typically occurs behind or around one eye and involves recurrent, burning or piercing pain.
According to the WHO, these types of headaches are less common, affecting fewer than one in 1,000 adults — six men to each woman.
Stanford Medicine notes that cluster headaches last between 20 minutes and two hours and are “some of the most painful headaches imaginable.”
Clusters are always one-sided, and symptoms include a stuffy nose on one side, tearing, an enlarged pupil, a droopy lid or eye redness.
It’s unclear what causes cluster headaches, but people who develop them are often smokers, according to the Migraine Trust.
Forehead, cheekbones and nasal cavity
The forehead, cheekbones and nasal cavity are where the main sinuses sit, so pain in one or more of these areas is likely a sinus headache.
Sinus headaches are typically a symptom of a sinus infection, which is often bacterial. They can also be caused by allergies, chronic inflammation or structural issues, such as nasal polyps, according to Medical News Today.
Other symptoms of a sinus infection can include a runny nose, painful teeth, bad breath, coughing, fever and/or fatigue.
Both sides of the head
Headaches on both sides of your head are probably new, daily persistent headaches — which won’t stop and don’t get better with usual treatments, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Symptoms of the rare chronic headache disorder come very suddenly and are moderate to severe — and they can last years or even a lifetime.
NDPH symptoms often look like tension headaches, migraines or a combination of both, but they occur in a distinctive way.
They last at least three months, there’s constant pain, you remember exactly when the headache started — including where you were and what you were doing — and pain is moderate to severe and could potentially disrupt a person’s life.
All over the head
If your headache is felt all over, you probably need to drink more water.
Dehydration headaches happen when your body doesn’t get enough fluids, and the headache pain often comes with other symptoms of dehydration, including fatigue, dizziness, extreme thirst and dry mouth, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Drinking water, resting and taking pain relief medications usually help the pain go away.
