How to keep a useful migraine diary

What to record

Keep it simple enough that you will actually use it.

• Headache or migraine day
• Severity and duration
• Associated symptoms
• Acute medicines taken and whether they helped
• Menstrual cycle if relevant
• Sleep, missed meals, major stress or other possible triggers

What the diary is for

The goal is not to control every variable. The diary should make the next clinical conversation more accurate and help you notice repeated patterns.

Understanding how to keep a useful migraine diary

How to keep a useful migraine diary can be part of the wider migraine picture, but the meaning depends on timing, frequency, associated symptoms and whether this is a familiar or changing pattern for you. Clea focuses on helping you organise those details rather than turning one symptom into a diagnosis.

How it fits into migraine

Migraine is a neurological condition that can affect pain, sensory processing, balance, thinking, mood and the gastrointestinal system. Symptoms can occur before, during or after head pain, and some migraine attacks occur without prominent headache.

What else can look similar

Many symptoms are not specific to migraine. A clinician may need to consider other headache disorders, medicines, sleep, infection, hormonal factors, eye or ear conditions, musculoskeletal problems, neurological disorders or other causes depending on the symptom and examination.

What to notice

The useful question is not simply whether how to keep a useful migraine diary happened once. Look for a repeatable pattern across attacks: when it appears, how long it lasts, what other symptoms occur with it and how much it changes normal activity.

• Timing and duration
• Frequency
• Symptoms that occur with it
• Impact on work, school or daily life
• What you tried and what happened next

What to track in Clea

Record headache or migraine days, severity, associated symptoms, medicines used and the context around the episode. Several weeks of consistent observations are usually more useful than trying to prove a cause from one attack.

• Headache and migraine-like days
• Severity and function
• Associated symptoms
• Acute medicine days
• Anything that changed around the pattern