A tension headache is steady pressure on both sides of the head, and you can usually keep functioning through it. A migraine is more often throbbing, on one side, and comes with nausea, or sensitivity to light and sound. Migraine attacks commonly force you to stop and lie down, and some people get visual disturbance beforehand. The two can occur in the same person, which is why the pattern of each episode matters.

Yes. Low fluid intake, a long gap between meals, alcohol and changes in caffeine intake are all recognised headache triggers. Caffeine is the one people miss most often: a sudden drop, such as on a weekend or a day off, can bring on a withdrawal headache by mid-morning. Keeping intake steady, rather than cutting it out abruptly, tends to work better.

It can. Taking pain relief for headaches on most days of the week over several weeks can lead to medication overuse headache, where the medication itself starts driving the pattern. The headaches become more frequent and respond less well. If you are reaching for tablets more than a couple of days a week, raise it with your GP or pharmacist before changing anything, because some medications need a staged reduction.

Yes, and they become more common through the high school years. Screen time, heavy school bags, exam stress, irregular sleep and skipped meals all contribute. A new or changing headache in a child should be reviewed by a GP first. Once medical causes have been excluded, treatment follows the same principles as for adults, with more emphasis on sleep routine, hydration and study set-up.

Eye strain can contribute to headaches, particularly a dull ache behind or above the eyes after long screen work. An out-of-date prescription, an uncorrected astigmatism or new progressive lenses can also cause you to hold your head at an angle, which loads the neck. If your headaches started around a vision change or you are squinting to read screens, an optometrist review is worth booking alongside treatment.

Record the date and time each headache starts, how long it lasts, where the pain sits, its intensity out of ten, and any medication taken. Add sleep hours, meals, caffeine, alcohol, stress and workload. Two to four weeks of entries usually reveals a pattern that is hard to see day to day, and it gives a clear baseline to measure your progress against.