Symp TracKeeping a migraine diary
Migraine is the classic diary condition: attacks are episodic, triggers are lagged and personal, and every neurologist will ask "how many days a month?" A diary answers in seconds what memory answers badly.
The four columns that matter
Record severity (0–10), duration or simply "attack day: yes", your sleep quality the night before, and one line of context — where you were, what was different that day. If your cycle plausibly plays a role, track it alongside; menstrual timing is one of the most common patterns a month view reveals.
Attack days per month is the currency
Treatment decisions — starting, switching, or stopping preventives — hinge on monthly attack frequency and how it trends. A diary that produces "9 attack days in June, 5 in July" is doing clinical work. This is also why consistency beats richness: a yes/no logged daily outperforms a detailed entry logged sometimes.
Chase triggers with a lag
Sleep debt, stress spikes and skipped meals often surface as an attack the next day. Track the suspects as their own metrics and compare shifted by a day — the method in finding your flare triggers. In Symp Trac, Patterns runs that comparison for you once two weeks of data overlap.
Before the appointment
Bring one page: attack days per month for the last 2–3 months, average severity, and your top suspected pattern. The appointment guide covers how to present it in three sentences.
Track it in Symp Trac — a private symptom diary for iPhone & Apple Watch. Two-tap logging, a month on one screen, doctor-ready reports. No account, no ads; the core diary is free.
Frequently asked
What should a migraine diary include?
Attack days with severity, sleep the night before, suspected context (meals, stress, cycle), and monthly totals. Consistency matters more than detail.
How many migraine days count as chronic?
Clinically, 15+ headache days a month with 8+ migrainous is the usual threshold — but any rising trend deserves a conversation with a doctor, and a diary makes the trend visible.
Do weather changes really trigger migraines?
Many people report pressure sensitivity; evidence is mixed. Track your attacks alongside your context notes and see whether the pattern repeats for you rather than assuming.