Understanding migraines and headaches
Log headaches alongside sleep, coffee and the weather to see what tends to come before the hard days.
Many people with migraines have a list of suspected triggers in their head: a short night, skipped lunch, a change in the weather, the second coffee. The hard part is that a headache often arrives a day later, long after the cause has been forgotten.
Patterns checks for next-day links as well as same-day ones, up to three days apart. So if your headaches tend to follow a drop in air pressure, or a night of poor sleep, it has a chance of noticing.
A gentle way to start
- Log a Headache whenever one starts, with how strong it felt. The duration can wait until it’s over.
- Turn on Weather in Settings › Connections if you’re curious about pressure. It’s off by default, and it rounds your location to about a kilometre.
- If you wear an Apple Watch, the Apple Health connection can bring in sleep, resting heart rate and more, without any extra logging.
What you might see
After a few weeks, Insights may show something like “Headache was logged more often the day after Pressure change was low.” Tap it to see the chart. If nothing shows up yet, that’s useful too: it means none of the links were strong enough to rule out chance.
Patterns can help you bring clearer notes to an appointment, but it isn't a diagnosis. If your headaches change or worry you, please talk to a doctor.
For a step-by-step guide, read how to keep a migraine trigger diary.