[gregcrv]

I've had similar issues a while ago and I was able to resolve them. Of course everyone is different but in case you want to check: for me the cause was that my bite was off, not balanced across all teeth and my jaw was being pushed back. I Resolved it by re-aligning the teeth, moving jaw forward and having special retainer that I can clench on at night without issues.

[spinningD20]

I used to wear a special bite splint / alignment device thing after I had the misfortune of an accident that messed up my jaw in my teens. To this day, one side of teeth make contact before the other side by just a mm or 2.

My teeth don't grind at night, but the next time I head to the dentist I'll look into seeing if I can have the issue corrected... worth a shot!

Thanks for the suggestion!

Edit for more info:

My wife helps out with back and neck massages, and my traps (neck and between the shoulder blades) usually have knots on the days I have trouble. I plan on ruling out weak traps and other muscular imbalances for good this spring, but as I mentioned in my initial comment, I have had three different rounds of PT sessions with different workout strategies over the last decade, and still no resolution (nor improvement during/after).

This tension thing waxes and wanes just like the other symptoms, but far more frequently.