Headache Hub guide
Migraine: symptoms, criteria, and tracking
Migraine is the most common disabling primary headache disorder. This guide explains what it feels like, the ICHD-3 criteria specialists use, and how tracking your own pattern with Ember sharpens the conversation with your doctor.
- ICHD-3 category 1
- Attacks last 4 to 72 hours
- More common in women
The basics
What is migraine?
Migraine is a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of moderate to severe throbbing head pain, typically affecting one side of the head. Under the ICHD-3 criteria, attacks are accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or sensitivity to light and sound, and they significantly disrupt daily activities.
Key characteristics
- Throbbing or pulsating pain quality
- Unilateral location (one-sided pain)
- Moderate to severe pain intensity
- Aggravated by routine physical activity
Prevalence and demographics
- How common
- One of the most common headache disorders
- Who it affects
- More common in women
Common triggers and risk factors
- Family history
- Hormonal changes
- Stress
- Sleep disturbances
Triggers differ from person to person. Tracking attacks alongside sleep, stress, and hormonal changes is how your own pattern emerges.
The clinical standard
ICHD-3 diagnostic criteria for migraine
The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition, defines migraine without aura (code 1.1) by five criteria. Specialists check each one against your history.
Criterion A
At least 5 attacks
Fulfilling criteria B through D.
Criterion B
Duration of 4 to 72 hours
When untreated or unsuccessfully treated.
Criterion C
At least two pain characteristics
Unilateral location, pulsating quality, moderate to severe intensity, or aggravation by routine physical activity.
Criterion D
At least one associated symptom
Nausea or vomiting, or both photophobia and phonophobia.
Criterion E
Not better accounted for by another ICHD-3 diagnosis
How Ember fits the criteria
Describe attacks in your own words
No forms or tap-to-log grids. Tell Ember what the attack felt like and it captures the details the ICHD-3 criteria care about.
See your pattern over time
Frequency, duration, triggers, and medication response, tracked as they happen instead of reconstructed from memory.
Bring a structured history to your doctor
Review your headache history before an appointment.
Ember helps you track and organize your headache history. It does not diagnose, and it never replaces evaluation by a clinician.
A note on warning signs: a headache that reaches maximum intensity within a minute, a new headache with fever, weakness, confusion, or vision loss, or the worst headache of your life warrants immediate medical care, not an online guide.
Subtypes
Migraine subtypes and their guides
Migraine is a family of conditions. Vestibular migraine has its own guide.
Frequently asked questions
Compare
Related headache disorders
Not sure migraine is the right fit? These conditions are the most common look-alikes.
Cluster headache
Severe one-sided pain around the eye with tearing, congestion, and restlessness. Attacks are shorter than migraine and arrive in clusters.
Read moreTension-type headache
Bilateral pressing or tightening pain, usually milder than migraine and without prominent nausea.
Read moreHeadache Hub
Explore all the primary headache disorder guides, from cluster headache to vestibular migraine.
Read more
Next step
Know your migraine pattern
Reading is a start. Tracking with Ember turns your attacks into a history you and your doctor can act on.