Headache Hub
Your headache has a name.
Specialists recognize more than 300 headache types - and knowing which one fits you changes the conversation with your doctor. These guides explain the most common ones in plain language, with the criteria specialists actually use.
- Headache types in ICHD-3
- 300+
- In-depth guides
- 5
- Anchored to
- ICHD-3
Condition guides
The five headache types people ask about most
Each guide covers what the condition feels like, the ICHD-3 criteria behind it, and how tracking your own pattern helps.
- 14.4%global prevalence
Migraine
Most common disabling type
Throbbing, often one-sided pain with nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
ICHD-3 category 1Read the guide - 78%lifetime prevalence
Tension-type headache
Most prevalent overall
Bilateral pressing or tightening pain of mild to moderate intensity.
ICHD-3 category 2Read the guide - 0.1%prevalence
Cluster headache
Severe and distinctive
Excruciating one-sided pain around the eye with tearing, congestion, and restlessness.
ICHD-3 code 3.1Read the guide - 25%of migraine includes aura
Ocular migraine
Visual symptoms
Zigzag lines, blind spots, and shimmering lights - visual aura with or without headache.
Aura lasts 5 to 60 minRead the guide - 1%prevalence, often missed
Vestibular migraine
Dizziness and balance
Episodes of vertigo or dizziness in people with a history of migraine.
ICHD-3 appendix A1.6.6Read the guide
Prevalence figures reflect published epidemiological literature.
Guides in progress
- Sinus headache
- Hemicrania continua
- Thunderclap headache
- New daily persistent headache
- Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias
A note on sudden, severe headache: a headache that reaches maximum intensity within seconds to a minute (thunderclap headache) is a medical emergency. Seek immediate medical care rather than an online resource.
The clinical standard
Why ICHD-3 matters
The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition, is the taxonomy neurologists and headache specialists use worldwide. Every guide here is anchored to it.
Category 1
Migraine
Including aura subtypes, chronic migraine, and complications.
Category 2
Tension-type headache
Episodic and chronic forms of the most common headache.
Category 3
Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias
Cluster headache, paroxysmal hemicrania, SUNCT and related disorders.
Category 4
Other primary headache disorders
New daily persistent headache, hypnic headache, and more.
Where Ember fits
Reading helps. Tracking changes the visit.
Ember, FIRY's conversational AI companion, covers all of headache - not just migraine. It turns what you experience into a history your doctor can use.
Describe it in your own words
No forms, no tap-to-log grids. Tell Ember what the headache felt like and it captures the details that matter clinically.
See your pattern over time
Frequency, triggers, medications, and how attacks evolve - tracked as they happen instead of reconstructed from memory.
Share a history your doctor can use
Your record becomes a structured, ICHD-3-aware summary, so the visit starts at the decision instead of the data gathering.
Ember helps you track and organize your headache history. It does not diagnose, and it never replaces evaluation by a clinician.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Next step
Put a name to your pattern
Reading is a start. Tracking with Ember turns your experience into a history you and your doctor can act on.