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Actually, REM didn't evolve as a means to solidify memory (muscle or mental) or to prevent movement amid sleep. Although REM appears to benefit our mental acuity, atonia (essentially the loss of muscle readiness) likely evolved as means to sustain physical and neural systems more vital to survival among ancestral animals than muscle readiness amid their periods of inactivity or rest. Atonia isn't muscle paralysis amid REM as some seem to believe. We don't move amid REM or dream sleep because dreams are not true physical material experiences; i.e., they do not involve the actual physical experiences of true reality. The sleeping brain, for the most part, is able to distinguish that difference. Dreams don't generally generate the sensory experiences that activate our gross motor response systems. It is likely that the benefits of REM sleep arise from the cessation of muscle readiness, which allows for the production of Orixen-A a neuotransmitter shown to restore mental acuity amid REM deprivation studies.

Out of curiosity, might I ask for a link to your references? I think we're a few pages off from being homeostatic with eachother as Atonia is symptom commonly called full body paralysis and is an effect of the body transitioning into a REM state ( http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9811 ). A state that as I said before was an essential factor of dreaming the dreams that restore and reiterate us and our experiences ( http://sleep.health.am/sleep/REM-sleep/ ). Orixen-A itself is dually a sleep cycle control hormone or an energy booster of sorts when in lack there of ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080102093936.htm ).

Huh, I guess I'm more out of loop with the science community than I thought because I was sure that scientists had settled to agree that energy restoration and regeneration were but a small part to the reason behind sleep. Leaving the major reason to be that it is when our brain "teaches" our body or even itself what it learned since its last time of sleep. Hence the whole REM cycle to prevent us from moving and how a soccer player will typically dream of a soccer ball or my own unofficial theory of how those dreams where it feels like we are moving in slow motion is more of "systems check" than a odd dream where we're trying to escape a jack-a-lope...

But to get back to the topic of the OP, reiteration of get more sleep somehow (power-naps or even 12sec-5min states of serene breathing can do well to replace any lost hours of sleep (they just require extreme mental discipline)), do something about the swelling (neck rolls/rotations work supremely, even stretching down to the fingertips helps alleviate head pressure at times), and if it persists a physicians insight is always recommended. However, if meds and paying for common sense aren't ideal, remembering that head pressures are some irritation of either swelling or fluid build up in the meninges or interstitial spaces: you might wanna consider diet and exercise modifications (more running/jogs; less salts; half an extra helping of greens; and water through out the day).