Migraine diary: what to record, with a printable monthly PDF
A headache or migraine diary helps you and your clinician talk about the same days. The useful ones are short, kept every day, and easy to read in an appointment.
What to write down for each day
- Whether you had a headache, and how bad, 0 to 10. Record the headache-free days too.
- The symptoms you get with it. Nausea, light sensitivity, aura, neck pain: whatever yours are, named the same way every time.
- Sleep the night before. Hours, or a 0 to 10 for how rested you felt.
- Anything you took for it, as you would tell your clinician. The name and the time, exactly as prescribed or bought. A diary records; it does not decide what to take.
- A short note for anything unusual. A missed meal, travel, a long screen day, your cycle if you track it.
Ask before you start
Ask your clinician what they want in the diary. Some want headache days only, some want every symptom, some want the times. Keep to what they ask for and you will keep the diary longer.
A copyable daily line
- Date
- Headache today (yes or no) and worst level 0 to 10
- Other symptoms and their levels
- Sleep
- Anything taken, and when
- Note
How Plainlog does it
Name your symptoms once ("headache", "nausea", "light sensitivity", or your own words) and log a day in about ten seconds. Pick a month and Plainlog makes a one-page PDF: black on white, a symptom table with averages and days logged, a day-by-day grid and your notes. Print it or hand over the phone.
Plainlog records what you enter and reports it back. It does not diagnose, interpret or suggest treatment.
Price: Free for 14 days, then $14.99 once. No subscription, no account.
Plainlog records what you enter and reports it back. It does not diagnose, interpret, suggest treatment or calculate anything about medication. It is a notebook, not a clinician.