How to keep a migraine diary you can actually use

A small entry is a useful start

The Migraine Trust recommends keeping the diary simple. Timing, severity, symptoms and medication are useful basics. Use your own clear descriptions and note when a time is approximate.

• Start and end: separate headache from earlier symptoms and later recovery.
• Impact: what you could or could not do, using a consistent scale.
• Medication: name, amount and time taken, plus your observation afterwards.
• Context: only the additional details you can reasonably maintain.

Filled-in example

This example does not recommend a treatment or prove that treatment caused the improvement. It shows how timestamps and functional observations make a later conversation more specific. Keep an estimate labelled as an estimate instead of filling gaps with invented precision.

Review days and attacks separately

An episode running across midnight may be one attack but involve two calendar days. A monthly summary should say what it counts. Similarly, three doses on one date are three doses but one medication-use day for that medicine.

Record headache-free days if they are part of your agreed diary method. A blank day may mean ‘no entry’, not ‘no symptoms’. These distinctions matter when reviewing a month and are easy to lose in a chart.

Choose a format and review it together

Try the printable daily diary, medication log or monthly review sheet. The forms allow browser entry, CSV download and printing. They do not auto-save, so download or print before closing.

Agree a review period with your clinician. A fixed total such as 10 or 15 attacks does not guarantee a causal pattern, and you should not delay needed care while waiting to finish a diary. Use the appointment question sheet to turn observations into questions.