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Printable headache diary
A headache diary is a daily record of your headaches: when each one started, how long it lasted, how bad it was, what you took, and whether it helped. England's NICE guideline says a diary used to help diagnose headaches should run for at least 8 weeks.
The part that matters most is the count at the end of the month: how many days you had a headache, and how many days you took each medicine. This one prints with your month and your medicines already on it, and ends with a box for those counts. Pick the month, add your medicines, and print.
How to fill in a headache diary, and what to count
Fill in one row a day. Rate the pain from 0 to 10, where 10 is the worst pain you can imagine, and write 0 on a good day. That way a blank row means a day you missed, not a day you were fine.
When you take a medicine, write the time in its column, and a second time if you take a second dose. Do it the same day, while you still remember. People forget headache days. In one study, people with migraine asked about the past 4 weeks recalled 1.7 to 3.4 fewer headache days on average than their daily diary showed. If you keep the diary for someone else, a child or a parent, fill in the row with them before bed.
At the end of the month, count three things
- Days with a headache, meaning any day with pain above 0
- Days you took any medicine for a headache
- Days you took each medicine
The box on page two has a line for each. Taking headache medicine too often can cause more headaches. That's called medication-overuse headache. The international classification that doctors use points to it when someone has headaches on at least 15 days a month and, for more than 3 months, has taken:
- triptans, ergotamine, opioids or combination painkillers on 10 or more days a month
- acetaminophen, aspirin or NSAIDs such as ibuprofen on 15 or more days a month
- a mix that includes anything from the first list on 10 or more days in total, even when no single one reaches its own line
One month near a line isn't a diagnosis, but it's worth asking about at your next appointment.
What's on the sheet
The columns follow the list in England's NICE headache guideline: how often, how long and how bad; other symptoms; every medicine you take for it, prescribed or bought at the store; possible triggers; and how the headaches line up with your period. We add when it started, where it hurt and whether the medicine helped.
A month takes two pages, days 1 to 16 and then the rest. Short months grey out the days they don't have. A key on page one spells out the short letters: N for nausea or vomiting, L when light bothers you, S when sound does, A for aura, and Y (yes), P (partly) or N (no) for whether the medicine helped. For a pain score outside headaches, the printable pain scale describes each number in words.
A worked month
Dana is 38 and gets migraines. Her doctor asks her to keep a diary before a follow-up visit, so she adds sumatriptan 50 mg and ibuprofen 400 mg to the tool and prints October.
When October ends, she counts. She had a headache on 11 days. She took sumatriptan on 6 days and ibuprofen on 7, and both on 2 of those days, so she took something for a headache on 11 days.
Neither medicine alone is near its own line. Together they come to 11 days, just past the 10-day line for a mix. She prints November and keeps going. At the visit, her doctor reads two months of counts instead of a guess.
When a headache can't wait for the diary
Call 911 or go to the emergency room for a headache that started suddenly and is extremely painful, or that comes with numbness or weakness in the face or body, trouble speaking or walking, confusion or drowsiness, loss of vision, a seizure, a very high temperature or a stiff neck, or that follows a head injury in the past 3 months. If you just get headaches often, that alone is a reason to see your doctor, and the diary is what to bring.
Questions about headache diaries
- How long should I keep a headache diary?
- At least 8 weeks to help diagnose headaches, and for at least two menstrual cycles if your headaches seem to follow your period. After that, keep it going while you try a new treatment, so you and your doctor can see whether it's working.
- Is a paper headache diary better than an app?
- The better one is the one you'll fill in every day. Paper works when you'd rather not look at a screen with a headache, and it lets someone else fill in the row for you.
- Can I print a blank headache diary?
- Yes. Remove the medicines and pick "No month, I'll write it in" in the Month menu. You get a 31-day diary with two medicine columns to fill in by hand.
What we will never do with your records
This generator runs without an account, and KeptWell itself makes the same promises to every family, regardless of plan or price.
- We won't sell your data.
- Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to insurers, not to pharma, not to anyone, in any form, ever.
- We won't train AI models on your records.
- KeptWell does not opt in to model training. OpenAI and Anthropic do not use API inputs or outputs to train their models by default.
- We won't lock you in.
- You can export everything in your circle as a ZIP at any time. Cancellation is one click.
Keep the diary with the rest of the record.
Scan each finished month into KeptWell, next to the notes from the visit. KeptWell reads the notes, records any medicine change, and the whole family sees the same record. Its journal can also log each dose with the time it was taken.
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