A trigger is something that may have set off a migraine. A glass of red wine. A bad night of sleep. A storm coming in.
MigraineMe can spot many of these for you, automatically, by looking at the health data you are already collecting on your phone, your watch, your weather, and your food log. We call these auto-triggers.
You do not have to do anything to start them. They run quietly in the background. When MigraineMe spots one, it adds a small entry to your journal so you can see it later.
How it works
Every hour, MigraineMe takes a fresh look at your recent data. It compares each measurement to two things:
- A sensible default range that works for most people. For example, more than 400mg of caffeine in a day is high.
- Your own personal baseline, built from the last 14 days of your data (it needs at least 7 days of readings before it kicks in). So if your normal night is 6 hours of sleep, a 4-hour night counts as low for you, even if the textbook says 7 hours is normal.
When something crosses one of those lines, MigraineMe records it as an auto-trigger. You will see it in your journal, in your insights, and on the timeline.
The seven categories
MigraineMe groups triggers into seven categories on the Triggers screen under Manage Items. Each one looks at a different part of your life.
- Body: what your body was doing: steps, recovery, blood pressure, blood glucose, heart rate zones, weight, stress from your wearable.
- Cognitive: your mind: stress, anxiety, screen time, late-night screen use, noise levels.
- Diet: what you have eaten and drunk: caffeine, sugar, vitamins, minerals, alcohol, gluten, tyramine, histamine, MSG, nitrates, sulfites and aspartame exposure, skipped meals. This is the largest group.
- Environment: the world around you: air pressure, humidity, temperature, altitude, UV, wind, thunderstorms, pollen and air quality.
- Menstrual Cycle: for people who track their period: menstruation, ovulation and contraceptive changes as possible triggers.
- Physical: physical states the app cannot measure, logged by hand: allergies, illness, motion sickness, and so on.
- Sleep: how long you slept, whether you went to bed late, how disturbed the night was, and so on.
You are in control
Auto-triggers are turned on by default for most items, because we know how easy it is to forget a small thing. But you can change all of that.
- Some auto-triggers may not fit you. For example, if you never drink coffee, the Caffeine low trigger may be noisy. You can turn it off.
- Some thresholds may be wrong for you. For example, the default for Sleep duration high is 10 hours, but you may want it set to 9 hours. You can adjust it.
- Some triggers can only be logged by hand, not automatically. Things like a strong smell, fluorescent lights, or anger. They sit in the same lists, ready to log yourself.
See these other help articles for details:
- Reviewing the triggers MigraineMe has detected for you.
- Adjusting how sensitive a trigger is.
- Turning off a trigger you do not think applies to you.
When will I see auto-triggers in my journal?
Straight away for the default ranges. Your personal baseline needs at least a week of readings, so in the first week or two you may see fewer auto-triggers.
If you connect your watch, weather, sleep app, and food log, you will see more auto-triggers, because there is more for MigraineMe to look at.
You do not have to read every auto-trigger. They are simply there when you want them.
