Hi, Headaches are commonly precipitated or can be caused by bouts of INSOMNIA or even HYPERSOMNIA and the pains can be anything from stabbing, shooting, pains as you describe or they can be migrainous with nausea, vomiting, with light and sound sensitivity and sharp boring pains in the eyes or back of the head. You will benefit greatly from an analysis as to what is going on with your nightmares since this shouldn t be happening. Are you diagnosed with some type of post traumatic stress disorder due to a near death experience of either yourself or someone you are close with or are these coming from some terrible repressed experiences you had in the past in the military or as a child growing up or in school? There is specific medication available for nightmares that can render them inactive to a certain extent. The medication is by prescription and goes by the trade name in the U.S. of MINIPRESS. It is more commonly known in the circles as PRAZOSIN and is very economical. There is a specific uptitration method of dosing PRAZOSIN called the RASKIND PROTOCOL so you may wish to see someone who is familiar with how to properly dose the drug and not just put you on some piddly little dose they never change except once every 6 months if they think about asking you how your nightmares are! With this medication and assuming you are not allergic or suffer from any other intolerable side effect I would say that inside of 2-4 weeks you should be sleeping like a BABY and this will dramatically improve the striking, stabbing pains over the right side of the head. I hope this answers your query. I remain at your disposal in case further medical assistance is needed. Wish you the best of health. Thank you. Regards, Dr. Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist