What do you know? There's an actual name for it - "Occipital Neuralgia."

Been getting headaches for a few years now that I've forever blamed on old training injuries and poor postural habits/sitting at the computer too long. Sometimes they're just brutal, waking me up at night and demanding hot showers to the base of my skull/neck to dull the throbby stabbing. As much time as I spend on the 'net it only occurred to me today to type in my symptoms into the computer and see what the mighty Google had to say about it - ["headache" "base of skull" ftw, btw] - describes exactly my symptoms and my probable causes. Good to know it's not something more serious, sucks to know that there's really nothing to be done besides what I already do - [rest, heat, massage, etc...]

Occipital Neuralgia Information Page:

"Occipital neuralgia is a distinct type of headache characterized by piercing, throbbing... chronic pain in the upper neck, back of the head, and behind the ears, usually on one side of the head. Typically, the pain of occipital neuralgia begins in the neck and then spreads upwards... The pain is caused by irritation or injury to the nerves, which can be the result of trauma to the back of the head, pinching of the nerves by overly tight neck muscles..."

Started getting these after a particularly bad neck *crack* from landing on my head while shooting for a double leg takedown in the dojo... and I tend to hold all my stress in my neck anyways. Double whammy.

"...frequent lengthy periods of keeping the head in a downward and forward position are also associated with occipital neuralgia."

Computers, books, reading, of course...

"Treatment is generally symptomatic and includes massage and rest. In some cases, antidepressants may be used when the pain is particularly severe. Other treatments may include local nerve blocks and injections of steroids directly into the affected area."

More at Occipital neuralgia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia