What Causes a Headache on One Side of the Head

Headaches can arise from various causes ranging from tension headaches to migraine-simple type that causes a person to seek comfort from a dark room. A headache can involve the entire head or only one side of the head. Sometimes this can give clues about what type of headache is actually happening. What causes headaches on one side of the head?
Cause Headache One Side

Headache on one side of the head often has one of two common causes. This could be migraine headaches or cluster headaches. Although many people attribute the one hand, tension headaches, tension headaches usually give more diffuse, nonspecific pain and pressure involving the entire head.
Migraine Headaches

Migraine headaches usually begin as a dull pain that quickly develop into more severe pain. Initially pain may be unclear and non-local, but usually progresses to involve more than one side to another. The pain is usually throbbing, and may be associated with visual changes, nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light. The affected side of the head can change from one episode to the next migraine. If the type of migraine headache consistently occurred on the same side, further research may be needed to remove a brain tumor.
Another common cause of headaches on one side of the head is a cluster headache. With this type of headache, a person may experience burning pain is very sharp one side of head pain, usually more than one eye local. The affected eye may appear red and swollen with the watering and tearing. As the name implies, these headaches usually occur in "clusters, with a headache on consecutive days. This can last for several weeks before finally disappearing. Cluster headaches are less common than migraine.
Other causes Headache on One Side of Head

Although migraine and cluster headaches are the two most common causes of headaches one hand, they also may arise from the sinuses are infected or inflamed, usually involving one side of the face or forehead. Rarely, headaches can be caused by one side of the underlying brain tumors or other masses in the brain, especially when the headaches always occur on the same side. Of course, injury to the head can cause headache in the local one side.