For a few years I have, on occasion, woken up with the worst kind of screaming headache imaginable. It feels like the plates of my skull are sliding down the back of my neck. It also hurts to move my neck at all. It's become more frequent over the last year and is having a detrimental impact on what I can do during the day - painkillers don't always shift it and, at the weekend, I end up just sitting on the sofa for the first few hours of the day trying not to move. I get a headache if I get out of bed too quickly as well. Not always but I can tell when sudden movements will cause stabbing pain in my head that seems to pulse.
Fortunately (!) I'm unemployed at the moment because I couldn't get up until 12pm today. Every time I woke up I had the screaming type of headache (lying down) so rolled over to sleep it off and eventually accepted at 12pm that wasn't going to happen and I was wasting a day. I can't afford to waste half a day when I have so much to be doing. It makes me very reluctant to get out of bed because I know when I stand up it's going to get worse.
Does anyone know what might cause this please? I sleep on two pillows because I have problems breathing if my head isn't elevated and I'm wondering if that could be the cause? We have a memory foam mattress as well, although I sleep better with it than before we bought it. I will try sleeping on one pillow for a few days and see if that helps but is there anything else I need to consider?