What's the best way to get rid of a headache if sleep is out of the question?

Drink some coffee and get a little shoulder rub from someone who won’t creep you out, or be creeped out by you asking for one :)

Soak your feet in some Hot water while you right. As long as the water stays hot the headache should ebb (it won’t go away though). It causes the blood to rush from your head to your feet thus relieving the pain. You could also try a bit of caffeine w/out sugar (so soda is out of the question). Water helps often too and so does a salt water nasal flush in case it is your sinuses. But i’d try the hot water thing first.

I’m assuming that OTC painkillers are out of the question??

sex
duh

sometimes i have to kill a drifter just to make the voices go awa….coffee.

If you can take over-the-counter pain releivers, I take both extra-strength acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol) and ibuprofen (e.g. Advil, Motrin)—either one of each or two of each, depending on how bad the headache is. They are two different classes of pain releivers, so they work differently. I also minimize noise and other distractions as much as possible.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir beat me to it, but really orgasms relieve headaches. A sexologist who spoke at my school taught me that. So really… masturbate. Besides, you probably need a break from that paper! :)

I don’t have any suggestions but rather the comment that I am in the same boat. Splitting headache and I have an american government paper due first thing in the morning. I’ve found the most comfortable chair in the library :) but now I have to actually write the paper

Thanks everybody! Yes, sex and painkiller are definitely out of the question but I’ll try the hot water idea.

Good luck on your paper sevenfourteen!!

@lisaj89 – also, make sure you are drinking enough water. Is it a stress headache?

(I’m going to try the hot water thing, next time I’m in a no-sleep, headache situation!)

Yea,cak, actually I just downed two bottles of water and a Goody powder and now I’m good to go! One page down, three to go!

Strong coffee and two aspirins should do the trick in an hour or less.

@lisaj89 I’m cheering you on, quietly, of course! Good luck with the paper, then try to get some good sleep! This is why I don’t miss college.

@lisaj89 – thanks. I’m still in the library (good thing it’s open 24/7) Took a slight nap though. I hope your paper isn’t taking as long as mine

Thanks for the support cak and sevenfourteen. I started to get writer’s block so I started cleaning (company coming in tomorrow) for a while. For some reason cleaning wakes me up big time so hopefully I can make it to 6am without falling asleep. I feel like crap the next day if I only sleep a little, but I’m fine if I don’t sleep at all, so weird!

There are a few pressure points to temporarily relieve headaches. One is meaty part of your hand between your pointer and thumb. Press and hold for a few minutes. Also, if you have a throbbing headache at your temples, you can gently apply pressure to the artery there to reduce some of the pressure.

@Shuttle128: That point between the thumb and index finger works! I first heard of it when I was a college student over 20 years ago, and sometimes I forget about it (fortunately, headaches are a rarity these days).

A glass of water, a gram of paracetamol and a cup of coffee.