Alora Fane

I intended to post a Weekly Update today... but haven't yet finished what I wanted to do before it, largely due to a distracting feeling of pressure on the top of my head which has been a source of concern and anxiety for years. I think I've finally come to a realisation about what's causing it, though!!

It's something I've probably written about before, because I've been experiencing it on and off for much of my life. Sometimes it goes away for months, other times it bothers me every day for a week. And I've devoted a whole lot of mental time and energy to wondering what terrible cause there must be behind it.

I always used to worry that maybe it meant I had a brain tumour. Then when I found out that I did have a brain tumour, and got surgery for that, I thought that explained it and I'd seen the end of it.

But it came back, so I wondered whether it was just a consequence of my brain's apparently permanently engorged ventricles causing pressure against my skull or something... though if that were the case, why do I only get it sometimes, and why do I have no other symptoms associated with neurological issues, like disruption of balance?

I've been noticing when it happens that I'm also experiencing a lot of bodily tension - especially clearly felt in my shoulders and jaw - so I've wondered whether anxiety might be causing some subconscious tensing of scalp muscles or something. Other people with anxiety do report all kinds of weird symptoms, after all, headaches very much among them. But muscle relaxation exercises never seemed to make it go away.

I also thought maybe it could be due to dehydration, so I've been trying to drink more for a few weeks or months now. But clearly it wasn't that, because the pressure feeling's still here.

I had a thought randomly just an hour or two ago: Maybe it's because of a lack of sleep?

I've been busy this week renovating this website, and that's involved setting up info sections and associated visuals - videos and images - for my games, Atonal Dreams in particular. I've mostly finished with it - I'll write the Weekly Update after finishing off a few more bits - but it's taken way more time than expected (as always!!). It's a change from the usual, though, so I've been able to focus on it for way longer, and I've been excited about working on it, so I've been going to bed later - and struggling to fall asleep when I do - and waking up sooner.

The app I use to track how much I sleep has been saying I've been getting about 6 hours a night, which I thought was probably fine, especially since I haven't been feeling tired, really...

I mean we're meant to get between 7 and 8, or something, and that's close enough, right?

Well. I just googled it, and found ∞ this article ∞, the abstract of which reads:

Headaches due to insufficient or interrupted sleep are generally labelled "tension headaches" of psychogenic origin. In 25 healthy subjects, variable amounts of sleep loss (1-3 h for 1-3 nights) caused headaches lasting from 1 h to all day. The headache was most frequently a dull ache, a heaviness or a pressure sensation felt in the forehead and/or at the vertex. Simple analgesics, purchaseable without a doctor's prescription, completely or markedly reduced the head pain in 20-60 min. Headaches due to insufficient sleep differ from tension headaches in their site, duration and response to analgesics. Assuming that pain implies a regional dysfunction, headaches caused by sleep loss provide support for the notion that sleep has a restorative function in the brain.

That seems to be talking about what I'm experiencing more accurately than anything else I've found when wondering about this in the past! (I haven't taken any painkillers though so I don't know if that bit's accurate or not.)

So it probably is just that! Not my brain tumour coming back and blocking my brain's ventricles again and causing a return of the hydrocephalus which will mean my death in the near future!! Good!!!

So yes, this is unlikely to be all that interesting or relevant to anyone else, but it's something that's plagued me for years, and this felt such a relief and a revelation that I wanted to make a note about it.

Hopefully I won't just forget this though next time it happens and start worrying about it again!!

Also, I'll have an early night tonight, and take it easy tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get around to finishing the site and posting the Weekly Update though!

4 COMMENTS

leccosta1~2Y

Hi Tobias! I sent you an e-mail with a proposal. Hope you like it!

purplerabbits148~2Y

I can understand the body giving headaches when there's a defecit in something.

One example I remember was when I was swimming and I got a headache from wearing the goggles for too long. Turns out that eyes actually breathe so they send a signal to the brain that they are suffocating. Then the brain signals a headache, because there is no specific nerve that signals suffocation in the eyeballs.

The same process happens with contact lenses though not to such an extreme, because contact lenses don't enclose the eyeball like goggles do.

I also remember the story of streamers that "keep on the grind" so much that they don't actually eat and just drink those nutrient meal things. They eventually develop a headache when their body demands nutrients instead of the normal hunger reaction.

If sleep is the issue that causes your headaches, I highly recomend a sleep study so that you can obtain all the information of how your body is having difficulty sleeping. Could range from anything from sleep apnea to light sensitivity. And the study can help make it easier to sleep too.

I can understand the body giving headaches when there's a defecit in something.

One example I remember was when I was swimming and I got a headache from wearing the goggles for too long. Turns out that eyes actually breathe so they send a signal to the brain that they are suffocating. Then the brain signals a headache, because there is no specific nerve that signals suffocation in the eyeballs.

The same process happens with contact lenses though not to such an extreme, because contact lenses don't enclose the eyeball like goggles do.

I also remember the story of streamers that "keep on the grind" so much that they don't actually eat and just drink those nutrient meal things. They eventually develop a headache when their body demands nutrients instead of the normal hunger reaction.

If sleep is the issue that causes your headaches, I highly recomend a sleep study so that you can obtain all the information of how your body is having difficulty sleeping. Could range from anything from sleep apnea to light sensitivity. And the study can help make it easier to sleep too.

Tobias 1115~2Y

Interesting how those different things create headaches as an alert for the humans abusing their meat vehicles!

The pressure thing I get isn't like a headache; I had a 'normal headache' yesterday, and the pressure today, and they feel different. This isn't pain; it's more like the feeling of a hand pressing down on the top of my head or something.

What do you mean by sleep study? Is there some app for that kind of thing, or are you suggesting I go to the sleep study lab that's conveniently just down the street in my sleepy little Welsh seaside village?

purplerabbits148~2Y

Interesting how there's pressure but no pain. I only experienced that once but I was sick with something and everything was feeling the pressure including my eyes and nose.

I'm not quite sure how it is in your area of Wales, but at least in the US there are places you go to in order to get the sleep study done. Now I have been to a small village with retired old people in the UK, and there are surprises sometimes with what the old people have in the village. Maybe there's a sleep clinic near by? Seeing how some people would love their partners to stop snoring, seeing how getting older can lead to snoring, and seeing how that older people do tend to get into more medical situations, there's a possibility there could be something near by that does a sleep study.