What causes muscle tension headaches in the back of your head?
Here are the most likely causes of discomfort that feels like pressure or squeezing at the base of your skull.
1. You slept with your neck ‘too straight.’ This happens when your pillow doesn’t support your neck. It’s more as though your neck is in a ‘hammock’ position. This strains the muscles at the base of your skull.
2. You stick your chin out when you are trying to see the monitor or something else. This happens especially to people who wear bifocals because they are trying to read through the bottom of the lens and the screen is too high. This shortens the muscles at the base of your skull.
How can you get rid of muscle tension headaches?
1. Massage works. Either find a professional massage therapist or do it yourself. The back of your skull is called the occiput. Make sure the therapist knows how to massage there before you spend your money. You can learn how to do it yourself by getting or borrowing a copy of the do-it-yourself, easy to use trigger point book by Claire Davies.
Basically, to do it yourself, press into the muscles at the base of your skull and in your upper neck. Use your thumbs or fingers. You will know when you are on a tender place! It will be tender because the muscles are strained or short. Those tender areas are the places to press on. Pressing will help them relax.
2. Ice will help the muscles on the back of your skull and neck relax, too. Heat will probably make them feel a little worse. Use a cold pack for twenty minutes or until it starts to feel numb. Then remove it for twenty minutes and do again.
3. Watch your posture and positions very carefully to avoid causing muscle strain or shortening. You may have to make changes in the way you sit, sleep and walk.
And, sometimes the muscles at the base of your skull are not the the cause of your muscle tension headaches. Sometimes it’s the muscle that goes from your collar bones to behind your ears. We will write about those muscles next time.
