Is bright light a trigger or just a symptom?

It can be both, which is the tricky part. Bright or flickering light is a reported trigger, while light sensitivity is a symptom during an attack. Logging exposure with timing helps you tell whether light preceded the attack or arrived with it.

Does that include screens and fluorescent lights?

For some people, yes — glare, flicker and harsh strip lighting are commonly mentioned. A dated log across different light sources helps you see which, if any, tend to travel with your attacks.

Bright light and migraine: tracking the association

Bright sunlight, harsh indoor lighting, glare and flicker are among the sensory things people most often associate with their migraine days — which can be confusing, because light sensitivity is also a symptom during an attack. Temple can't prove light triggered an attack, but a dated record helps you tell a genuine trigger from the sensitivity that comes with the migraine itself.

Trigger versus symptom

The American Migraine Foundation and Mayo Clinic list bright or flickering lights and other intense sensory input among common migraine triggers. But sensitivity to light (photophobia) is also a core feature during an attack, so it's easy to mix cause and effect. That's precisely why timing matters: a light exposure noted before an attack begins is a different thing from the glare that becomes unbearable once it's under way.

How to log it usefully

Note the days with notable light exposure — long spells in harsh sun, flickering screens or strip lighting — beside your migraine days, and where you can, whether it came before the attack started. Over a couple of months this helps separate light as a trigger from light sensitivity as a symptom.

How Temple surfaces the pattern

Temple keeps your light notes next to your dated migraine days, so you can review whether attacks tend to follow bright or flickering exposure rather than simply featuring light sensitivity once they've begun. The diary records the association and leaves the interpretation to you and your clinician; it doesn't predict attacks.

Temple logs bright-light exposure beside each dated migraine day, so you can tell a light trigger from the light sensitivity that comes with an attack.

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Common questions

Is bright light a trigger or just a symptom?: It can be both, which is the tricky part. Bright or flickering light is a reported trigger, while light sensitivity is a symptom during an attack. Logging exposure with timing helps you tell whether light preceded the attack or arrived with it.
Does that include screens and fluorescent lights?: For some people, yes — glare, flicker and harsh strip lighting are commonly mentioned. A dated log across different light sources helps you see which, if any, tend to travel with your attacks.