That Splitting and Sharp Sensation

By: Rashi Patel

You get home from school after a full day of tests and quizzes. You’re weary. You continuously scroll through social media and text your friends late at night. You don’t get enough sleep. You finally finish your homework but realize you’re still behind in your classes. You’re stressed. The constant cycle of feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, or exhausted causes frequent headaches. Most of us, if not all, have experienced the splitting sensation of a headache that compels you to take an Advil and sleep it off. So why does it hurt so much to the point where I’m forced to trudge through my day?

In response to external and internal triggers, headaches are caused when “pain-sensitive nerve endings called nociceptors react to headache triggers,” (NIH). The thalamus, which controls your sensitivity to light and noise, sends messages to the part of your brain that manages your awareness of pain. There are various triggers of headaches like stress, dehydration, lack of sleep, strong odors, caffeine, genes, and even bad posture can make them worse.

The most common types of headaches include migraines, tension headaches, and cluster headaches. Migraines occur when there’s a severe pulsing sensation, “usually on one side of the head,” (Mayo Clinic). They can often take a turn for the worse and interfere with your daily activities, lasting for hours if not days. Tension headaches are mild headaches that have a steady ache and cause discomfort. Mostly brought on by stress or fatigue, they are the most routine type of headache out of the three. Lastly, cluster headaches are headaches that happen in clusters, as the name suggests, and are extremely painful. They typically occur in the middle of the night with intense pain on one side of the head.

While most usually sleep off a headache or take some medicine hoping it will wear off, that is not always the case for everyone. If headaches become too severe to bare or unusually frequent, you should talk to your doctor because it could be serious. Sometimes severe headaches can be accompanied by fevers, nausea, or body weakness. The non-stop pounding in your head will be the least of your worries only if you act upon it.