What to Track Between Vertigo Attacks

Updated 29 Oct 2026

After a vertigo attack ends, the natural instinct is to stop thinking about it until the next one. Yet the days in between hold most of the answers: what was different before the attack, and what the calm weeks had in common.

This guide explains what to track between vertigo attacks: steadiness, ear changes, sleep and stress, salt and meals, exercises, medicines, and how to turn quiet weeks into a useful summary for an appointment.

Why the days between vertigo attacks matter

Vertigo is more than feeling dizzy: the NHS describes it as feeling that you or everything around you is spinning, enough to affect your balance (NHS). Attacks are the obvious events, so most logs only record them. That leaves out the context that explains them.

The quiet days provide a baseline. If you know how steady you usually feel, how you slept, and what your stress was like in a normal week, a change before an attack stands out. Without that baseline, every attack looks random.

Balance problems are common: a large US survey found vestibular dysfunction in 35.4% of US adults aged 40 years and older, and dizziness was linked with a 12-fold increase in the odds of falling (Agrawal et al., 2009). Tracking between attacks helps you and your clinician see whether steadiness is returning or still limited.

A short entry takes under a minute on a good day. The value comes from keeping it going when nothing seems to be happening.

In Vertigo Journey, the Daily check-in records steadiness and symptoms in the same guided fields each day, attack or no attack. For attack days themselves, see how to get through a flare day without losing notes.

How to rate steadiness between vertigo attacks

A single evening score for steadiness, 0 to 10, is the core of a between-attacks log. Zero means fully steady; ten means you could barely stand. Pick the same time each day so scores compare fairly.

Add two quick yes-or-no lines: did you avoid any movement today because of dizziness, and did you hold onto furniture or walls? These capture the quieter ways vertigo shapes a day, even when no attack happens.

If you notice lingering unsteadiness for days after an attack, logging it shows how long recovery takes for you and whether that time is getting shorter. It also helps a clinician judge whether balance exercises could help.

Fields developed by Vertigo Journey.

In Vertigo Journey, the Daily check-in holds the steadiness score each evening, and the Daily Journal keeps a line on any near-fall.

How to log hearing and ear changes between vertigo attacks

The NIDCD describes Ménière's disease as an inner ear disorder that causes vertigo, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear, usually in one ear, though in 15% to 25% of people both ears may be affected (NIDCD). It also notes that attacks may come after a short period of tinnitus or muffled hearing.

That makes ear changes between attacks worth a daily line, whatever the diagnosis. Record which ear, whether you noticed ringing, muffled hearing, or fullness, and roughly when it started. If an attack follows, the timing shows whether the ear change came first.

Keep the wording consistent: "left ear, fullness, from 3 pm" is easier to compare across weeks than a different description each time. If hearing seems to change, note it with the date and ask whether a hearing test is due.

Sudden hearing loss with vertigo is one of the signs the NHS lists for emergency care (NHS), so act first and log afterward.

In Vertigo Journey, the Daily check-in includes ear symptoms in its guided fields, and custom symptoms let you add your own label, such as fullness in one ear.

How to track sleep and stress between vertigo attacks

The NHS notes that anxiety can make vertigo worse (NHS). A busy week, poor sleep, or a stressful event may come before an attack for some people, while for others there is no link. Only your own record can tell which applies to you.

Two lines a day are enough: hours of sleep with a 0–10 rating for how rested you felt, and a 0–10 stress score with a word on the cause. Keep it short; long entries tend to stop after a week.

When an attack comes, look back over the previous three days. Was sleep shorter? Was stress higher? One example proves little, but after several attacks a pattern may show, or clearly fail to show. Both results help, because they tell you where to focus.

Worry about the next attack is understandable. Noting it as part of the stress score keeps it visible without letting it take over the log.

In Vertigo Journey, the Daily check-in records sleep, mood, and external factors beside symptoms, so the days before an attack can be read together.

How to note salt, caffeine, and meals between vertigo attacks

For Ménière's disease, the NIDCD notes that a low-salt diet of 1,500–2,000 mg of sodium a day may be advised, along with a diuretic, to help reduce fluid retention (NIDCD). Any diet change should be agreed with your clinician.

If salt is part of your plan, a simple line works better than counting every milligram: mark meals that were clearly salty, such as takeout, processed food, or salty snacks. Add caffeine and alcohol on the same line if your clinician asked about them.

The point is to see whether attacks follow salty days, and whether a lower-salt week is followed by calmer ones. Over a month, a short meal note gives a clearer answer than memory.

If you have not been advised to change your diet, a meal note is still useful context. It costs a few seconds and can rule food in or out as a factor.

In Vertigo Journey, the Food Tracker holds meal and drink lines, so you can mark a salty meal or extra coffee next to the day's steadiness score.

How to log vestibular exercises between vertigo attacks

The NHS lists exercises among the treatments for vertigo (NHS), and the AAO-HNS guideline lists vestibular rehabilitation as an option for BPPV (Bhattacharyya et al., 2017). If a physiotherapist or doctor has given you exercises, the days between attacks are when most of them happen.

Log each session: which exercise, how many repetitions, and how you felt during and after it, on a 0–10 scale. If dizziness comes on during a session, note how strong it was and how long it lasted afterward, and ask your physiotherapist what level is expected.

Over weeks, the log shows whether the exercises become easier and whether steadiness scores improve. That is the evidence your physiotherapist needs to adjust the plan, and it can be encouraging on days when progress feels slow.

If an exercise brings on a full attack, stop, record what happened, and ask your clinician before repeating it.

In Vertigo Journey, Weekly Goals can hold an exercise aim, such as balance exercises twice a day, and show whether it held and whether steadiness changed alongside it.

How to track medicines between vertigo attacks

Treatments for vertigo depend on the cause. The NHS mentions antihistamines, antibiotics, and exercises among the options (NHS). The AAO-HNS guideline recommends against routinely treating BPPV with vestibular suppressant medications (Bhattacharyya et al., 2017), so medicine plans can differ a lot between people.

Whatever your plan, record each medicine with the dose, the dates you started and stopped, how often you used an as-needed medicine, and any side effects such as drowsiness. As-needed use is easy to forget, so note it the same day.

Between attacks, the log answers two useful questions: did attacks become less frequent after a change, and did you need as-needed medicine less often? Both are hard to recall accurately after a month.

Bring the medicine list to every appointment, including anything bought without a prescription.

In Vertigo Journey, My Meds keeps each medicine with its timing, so start and stop dates line up with steadiness scores and attack days.

How to bring your between-attacks log to an appointment

The NHS notes that a GP may do a simple test that involves moving from sitting to lying (NHS), and the AAO-HNS guideline recommends reassessment within 1 month after an initial period of observation or treatment (Bhattacharyya et al., 2017). A follow-up visit goes better with a clear record of the weeks since the last one.

Prepare one page: number of attacks and their dates, average steadiness in quiet weeks, ear changes before attacks, sleep and stress patterns, exercises done, and medicines with dates. Put your main question first, such as whether the plan is working.

Bring a few notes on daily life too: days missed from work, driving avoided, or activities you have started again. These show impact in plain terms.

If the cause is still unclear, see what to track when vertigo is still uncertain, and for visual triggers, what to log on visual-trigger days.

In Vertigo Journey, the Doctor Report builds a dated summary of your recent progress for a saved doctor, and My Care Team keeps notes for each visit.

How Vertigo Journey can help

A notebook can hold attack dates. The harder part is keeping the quiet weeks in the same record, so the days before an attack can be compared with the days that stayed calm.

Vertigo Journey is a personal vertigo tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. It records attacks, steadiness, ear symptoms, sleep, stress, medicines, and test dates in one dated history, and its insights show which habits and treatments come before calmer or harder weeks. Learn explains the condition in plain words, and the AI companions, such as Clara, answer questions when a new symptom is hard to read. Below is what you can use and how each part helps:

• Daily check-in — A short guided pass across symptoms, mood, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, and external factors, including spin intensity, duration, triggers, nausea, and balance limits, so links you would not remember on your own show up side by side.
• Daily Journal — Freer notes, including voice when screens feel unsteady, that add detail a score alone cannot show.
• Flare Tracker — Mark an episode clearly worse than usual, so you can tell a one-off spike from a repeating pattern.
• My Meds — Medicine names and timing, so you can line up a start date or dose change with episode frequency and duration.
• My Labs — Result dates for hearing tests, imaging, and other workups, compared with how you felt in the weeks before and after.
• Weekly Goals — Set one small aim, such as balance exercises, and see whether it held and whether episodes changed.
• Learn — Short education topics on vertigo themes such as positional triggers, balance, sleep, and visit preparation.
• AI companions — Clara and specialist companions already see your logged history, which helps with visit wording or questions after a new diagnosis.
• My Care Team — A profile for each clinician, plus upcoming appointments and notes for each visit, used before, during, and after appointments.
• Doctor Report — Two views: the Appointment Planning Report helps you prepare what to ask, and Generate Report, opened from a saved doctor, builds a dated summary of your recent progress for that doctor.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins that add context about you across weeks.
• Food Tracker — Meal and drink lines when salt, alcohol, or caffeine is something you and your clinician are watching.
• Period Tracker — Cycle dates, so you can see whether episodes or headaches cluster at a certain point in the cycle.
• Weight Tracker — Weight entries when weight is part of what you and your clinician are watching.

Everything you log builds one history. Guided forms include the key questions, and you can add custom symptoms when you need your own labels. Vertigo Journey is free to download.

Sources

• NHS — Vertigo
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) — Ménière's Disease
• Bhattacharyya N, et al. Clinical Practice Guideline: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (Update). Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2017
• Agrawal Y, et al. Disorders of balance and vestibular function in US adults. Arch Intern Med. 2009

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