Headache Calendar: What to Include
Headache calendar or migraine diary: every field worth recording, why your team asks for one, and what an app like Sam adds automatically.
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A printable headache diary template (Word or PDF) is available from The Migraine Trust in the UK. You fill in per attack the date, duration, strength, symptoms and medicine. It has one limit: anything about sleep, heart rate variability or pressure you must add yourself. If a doctor has established your migraine, in Sam's migraine diary new entries made today get the previous night's sleep and HRV from Apple Health when a value exists.
This article lists every field that belongs in a headache calendar. You can copy it onto paper, into a spreadsheet or into an app. Then you will see what a migraine diary in Sam holds in addition.
Headache calendar, migraine diary, migraine protocol: a difference?
In practice they mean the same thing. The Migraine Trust calls its template a headache diary. Whether you keep it as a calendar, a diary or a log, on paper or in an app, the fields stay the same. What matters is that you stick with one form.
If you prefer a spreadsheet, take one row per attack. The fields in the list below become your columns.
Why your care team asks for a headache calendar
Descriptions used in clinics classify migraine by the features of attacks: duration, pain character, accompanying symptoms and how often they occur. These details come from you. The sorting is done by your care team, not by a calendar.
The Migraine Trust says a diary can help your doctor, help you recognise triggers and warning signs, and show whether your acute or preventive medicine is working. The American Migraine Foundation agrees: the longer you track, the more patterns you and your doctor can spot.
Reasoning from memory can undercount your headache days. In a study of 182 people with migraine, the number of headache days recalled for a month was lower than in a daily diary, an average of 11.1 instead of 13.7 in 28 days. Your own numbers may differ. A diary also helps you answer precisely rather than guessing.
What belongs in a headache calendar or migraine diary
This is the core. Per attack, not per week:
- The date. For an attack that lasts days, enter each affected day separately.
- Start and duration in times or hours. "In the morning" is not enough, because migraine in adults lasts 4 to 72 hours.
- Intensity on a scale of 0 to 10, or in three steps: mild, moderate, severe. Stick to one scale.
- Place and character: one side or both, throbbing or pressing. These features help tell migraine and tension headache apart.
- Accompanying symptoms: nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, sound or smell.
- Aura: yes or no, what kind, how long, and whether it came before or with the pain.
- Acute medicine: substance, dose, time, whether you had to add a dose and how well it worked. If you note the brand, add the class, for example triptan or a painkiller.
- Limitation: could you work, only partly, or not at all? The same for housework and leisure. Questions like MIDAS later ask for days like these.
- Possible triggers as you suspect them: sleep, missed meals, stress and recovery, alcohol, cycle, weather changes.
This list is from this article, not a norm. The Migraine Trust asks you to keep the basics simple on purpose. Keep your own list short enough to fill in even on a difficult day.
What a paper template cannot do
The first fields you can answer honestly, because you live them. The last one is harder. "Possible triggers" asks about a period before the pain when you were not yet paying attention.
How long did you sleep the night before? What was your heart rate variability? If you fill that in on Sunday for the past two weeks, you write down a memory of data, not the data. And memory is exactly what a calendar should replace.
The same applies to the weather. Some people suspect pressure changes play a part. You are more likely to notice that when the pressure is recorded next to the entry. From memory you do not know what the pressure did three days ago.
Templates and apps
There is no single official UK or US calendar, but good options exist. The Migraine Trust offers a headache diary as a Word and PDF template for monthly use. The American Migraine Foundation describes journal, spreadsheet and app options and explains what to record.
Read the privacy policy of any app, including Sam, before you enter health data. A calendar does not replace an assessment. A headache that becomes the worst of your life within seconds, or new weakness, vision loss or trouble speaking, belongs in medical hands at once, through your local emergency number (112 in the EU, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US).
The migraine diary in Sam: fields and context
The attack diary in Sam's migraine program holds a date and time, strength, duration and symptoms, an aura field and a note. Duration runs in four steps: under 4 hours, 4 to 24 hours, 1 to 3 days and more than 3 days. Medicine, dose, limitation and cycle do not have their own fields; you can write them in the note.
For an entry made today, Sam attaches two values from Apple Health: the last recorded day value for sleep duration and for heart rate variability, when Apple Health has values. If you share your location, air pressure in hectopascals comes along if available. You see these next to the entry and in the doctor report. For an entry you backdate, Sam does not add them. Connecting the watch for this is covered in setting up Apple Watch for migraine.
The acute medicine hangs on the attack entry: you pick the product from your medication list, and the intake stays with the entry. A preventive medicine lives in your medication list on a daily or every few weeks schedule, and Sam reminds you. Sam does not enter attacks on its own and does not predict one. Your care team decides which medicine and dose fit you.
MIDAS gets easier when it is already written down
The MIDAS questionnaire asks about the last three months. On how many days did headaches make you miss work, school, housework or family, social and leisure activities, or cut your productivity at work or in housework by half or more? Five questions count toward the score.
Without a record you must estimate three months from memory. If you note your limitation per attack, you add the days up instead. That is why the limitation field earns its place, even if it feels unnecessary when you type it. In Sam you write it in the note, and a short MIDAS check-in comes once a month. The score describes how much your daily life is affected; it is not a diagnosis.
Log your migraine attacks in Sam and take a report
In the migraine program you enter each attack with onset, strength, duration, aura and symptoms, and you bring a doctor report as a PDF to the appointment.
- Instead of a paper template: the previous night's sleep and heart rate variability from Apple Health come with new entries made today, when values exist. You add only what you know yourself.
- Instead of memory: the report counts your migraine days for the period you choose, and shows when acute medicine was taken.
- Instead of assembling answers at the visit: a short MIDAS check-in arrives once a month, so you do not have to piece the answers together in the waiting room.
Sam does not enter attacks on its own, and the program assumes a doctor-established migraine.
Try Sam for freeSam is a wellness companion, not a medical device. The app does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition or health state. Always consult qualified professionals for medical decisions.
Related reading
- Migraine triggers: sleep and stress tracking
- Migraine medication diary
- Newly told you have migraine? First weeks
- Sleep, resting heart rate and migraine with Apple Health
Sources
Updated: October 2026
- The Migraine Trust: Keeping a headache diary, with Word and PDF templates
- American Migraine Foundation: Headache journals: tracking your migraine
- NICE CG150: Headaches in over 12s: diagnosis and management
- Miller VE et al.: Comparing prospective headache diary and retrospective four-week headache questionnaire over 20 weeks, Cephalalgia 2020. PubMed 32799667, full text
- National Headache Foundation: Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire
- NHS: Migraine
More on Migraine
- See the program for Migraine
- For family members: Migraine
- With a second condition: Migraine and Epilepsy
- With a second condition: Migraine and Panic Disorder
- See the doctor report
- Keep your medication and reminders in one list
- Keep a diary of your symptoms and complaints
- Share what you record with family
- Calculate your MIDAS migraine score (free tool)
Frequently Asked Questions
What belongs in a headache calendar?+
Per attack: date, start and duration, intensity on a fixed scale, where the pain is and how it feels, symptoms like nausea or light sensitivity, aura yes or no, the medicine with dose and time, how much it limited you, and possible triggers like sleep, meals, stress or your cycle. Keep the list short enough to fill in on a bad day.
Is there a difference between a headache calendar, a migraine diary and a migraine protocol?+
In practice they mean the same thing: a running record of your attacks with date, duration, strength, symptoms and medicine. The Migraine Trust calls its template a headache diary. Whether you keep it on paper, in a table or in an app does not change the fields.
Do I need a printable calendar, or is an app enough?+
Both can hold the key details. The difference is context. Sleep duration and heart rate variability you must remember on paper. In Sam, an entry made today gets the previous night's sleep and HRV from Apple Health when a value exists. If you prefer paper, use the field list in this article as your layout.
Why does my neurologist want a headache calendar?+
The Migraine Trust and the American Migraine Foundation both say a diary helps you and your doctor see patterns, spot triggers and check whether treatment works. Classification used in clinics describes migraine by features like duration, pain character and symptoms, and a calendar captures exactly those.
Does keeping a calendar really make a difference?+
It can. In a secondary analysis of a dietary-intervention trial with 182 people with migraine, headache days recalled from memory were lower than those in a daily diary, an average of 11.1 instead of 13.7 per 28-day period. In that study, recall undercounted headache days. A diary can give a more complete picture, but your own numbers may differ.
Does Sam enter migraine attacks on its own?+
No. You enter each attack yourself. For an entry made today, Sam adds the last day value for sleep duration and heart rate variability from Apple Health, and air pressure when you share your location. So you do not have to guess those figures. Sam does not predict attacks.
What does the MIDAS score have to do with the calendar?+
MIDAS asks how many days in the last three months your headaches made you miss work, school, housework or family, social and leisure activities, or cut your productivity at work or in housework by half or more. If you note your limitation per attack, you can add the days up instead of guessing. A monthly MIDAS check-in is part of the migraine program in Sam.