Tracking my migraines and what I did that might have caused them.

Current Symptoms:

  • Nausea
  • Hot flashes
  • Headache right behind right eyelid, but when worse, around the eye areas
  • Light sensitivity
  • No desire to eat
  • Lack of focus
  • Maybe tired/sleepy?
  • Feeling very grossed out by things that normally don’t gross me out, probably tied to the nausea

9/9/2024

Day Log

  • Migraine started mid-day, continued into night and got worse over time.
  • Most of the day was spent working until around 4:30, when I went to the gym, where I had minimal phone time.
  • Watched the football game on the bus ride back and at home. Took breaks like showering + making a shake.
  • Watched in the dark a bit, but migraine had started before then.
  • Diet was overall pretty rough today, had a decent breakfast, a mix of fruit, but a very junk-foody lunch. Skipped out on a major dinner because of symptoms, had a banana, some carrots, and a protein shake earlier. Still feeling bogged down from lunch.

Medication taken

  • 1 unit Motrin. Can’t really tell if it helped much, since it was close to bedtime. Nothing changed in the 30 minutes after I took it.

9/14/2024

  • Mild headache throughout the day, ramped up at night.

Day Log

  • Woke up at 4:30 am for some reason and then had trouble falling back asleep. Took a melatonin capsule thing, which knocked me out until ~ 8 am, but I felt groggy
  • Grogginess/lethargic feeling continued most of the day
  • Didn’t eat anything too crazy, didn’t consume a bunch of calories or anything

Medication taken

  • Tried drinking some green tea at around 7:30 PM and it seemed to help initially but wore off quickly.

10/6/2024

  • Woke up with a headache. Noticed it when I woke up in the middle of the night, but it remained until the morning.

Day Log

  • Yesterday was really hot. Maybe I was dehydrated?
  • Didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before, so I think I started feeling an oncoming migraine towards the end of the night

Medication taken

  • Planning on taking an excedrin

10/16/2024

  • Mild headache throughout the afternoon. Opted to take Excedrin at ~5 pm.

Day Log

  • Slept well the night before and had pretty limited screen time in the morning.
  • Didn’t feel off for most of the day. Didn’t eat as much as I normally do though in the morning. Had a bagel for breakfast.
  • Went to the gym around 12:30, had a pretty exhausting day today. Got a chipotle bowl for lunch and started realizing I had a mild headache a bit more after eating.
  • If I had to guess, my first thought about if I had a headache was probably in the early afternoon, around 12.
  • Was on my phone a decent bit after 1:30, but completely stopped at 4 because I was trying to sleep.

Medication taken

  • Wasn’t able to sleep, needed to do something so I took an Excedrin (half dose, one capsule instead of 2)

11/4/2024

  • Probably my worst one yet. Started feeling nausea in the late morning ~11 AM. Became a light headache in the afternoon ~1-2 PM.
  • Made me pretty confident that my migraines are tied to my sleep quality, more info in the daily log below.
  • Took a full dose of Excedrin. First pill was taken at around 3:30 PM, second pill at around 4:30 PM. First pill definitely made it more manageable, but the migraine didn’t go away completely, which is why I took the second one.

Day Log

  • Terrible sleep. Couldn’t stay awake past 9 PM, fell asleep around that time the night before
  • Woke up at 3 AM in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep until around 5:30 AM.
  • Slept from 5:30 AM to around 7:30 AM, so I technically got around 8 hours of sleep, but it was very split up.
  • Had to use a sleep mask + melatonin to fall asleep again.
  • Got out of bed around 7:30 and went outside to do some chores. Started working around 9:15 AM.
  • Had a decent breakfast, started noticing nausea on the bus ride into the city at around 11:30 AM.
  • Started noticing a mild headache while at work. Got worse over time, so decided to call it and go home after picking up lunch around 1:30 PM
  • Was extremely nauseous on the bus ride back, even the thought of gross things made me want to vomit.
  • Got back home, fell asleep with the help of a sleep mask for around an hour, but woke up and my migraine was actually worse.
  • Decided to have a small snack and take 1 pill of Excedrin after waking up, then waited around 30 minutes for it to kick in.
  • Headache + nausea didn’t completely go away, so took another one after around an hour after taking the first one.
  • Still nauseous now (around an hour after taking the second pill), and very wired from the caffeine, but at least the headache is gone.

Medication taken

  • Melatonin in the morning at around 5:00 AM to fall back asleep
  • 1/2 dose of Excedrin at around 3:30
  • 1/2 dose of Excedrin at around 4:30 (total is 2 pills, the max dose within 24 hours)

1/8/2025

  • Woke up with a nasty headache

Day Log

  • Last night, went to sleep at around 11:30, set an alarm for 7:30. Woke up with a headache at around 6:30 AM.
  • Might have been a bit dehydrated, but drank water before I slept.
  • Nose was clogged when I woke up, so could be a sinus problem.
  • Humidifier was running, so the air wasn’t too dry either.

Medication taken

  • Went back to sleep at around 8 AM and woke up at 9:30 AM. That helped a bit but still had a headache.
  • Decided to take an excedrin, and that’s what really minimized my headache.

Random notes

I have a feeling that I might have some sleep apnea. Reached out to doctor to schedule a sleep study. Going to try out nasal strips and/or nasal dilator.