Methodology

How the 1–10 Scales Work

Every tracker that uses a number rating (mood, energy, stress, anxiety, sleep quality, trigger intensity, symptom severity, coping effectiveness) uses a simple 1–10 scale with descriptive anchors. For example:

• • Mood: 1 = low, 10 = great
• • Energy: 1 = exhausted, 10 = energized
• • Stress: 1 = calm, 10 = overwhelmed
• • Anxiety: 1 = none, 10 = severe
• • Sleep Quality: 1 = terrible, 10 = restful

These are user-defined rating scales, not clinical diagnostic scores. They do not correspond to any validated clinical instrument, and no cutoffs or thresholds are applied. A "5" does not mean anything clinically — it is simply your self-assessment at that moment. The value is in comparing your own ratings over time, not in any individual number.

What Each Tracker Records

How Patterns Calculates Summaries

The Patterns page reads your locally stored check-ins, sleep entries, triggers, and coping logs to generate simple visual summaries:

• • Mood & Energy Over Time: Line chart of the last 14 check-ins, plotting mood and energy ratings as entered.
• • Stress & Anxiety Over Time: Same as above, for stress and anxiety.
• • Sleep Hours vs. Mood: Side-by-side line chart matching sleep hours to mood rating for each date, to help you visually spot correlations.
• • Average Mood by Day of Week: Bar chart showing the average mood rating for each day of the week (Sunday–Saturday), computed as the arithmetic mean of all check-ins for that day.
• • Most Common Emotions: Frequency count of emotion tags across all check-ins, sorted by count.
• • Coping Strategy Effectiveness: Average effectiveness rating (1–10) for each coping strategy, computed as the arithmetic mean.
• • Most Frequent Triggers: Frequency count of trigger entries, sorted by count.

All calculations are simple arithmetic (means and counts). No statistical modeling, trend fitting, or clinical interpretation is applied.

How Report Summarizes Data

The Report page filters your entries to a date range you choose and generates:

• • Averages: Arithmetic mean of mood, energy, stress, anxiety, sleep quality, and sleep hours across check-ins in the range.
• • Counts: Total number of entries of each type (check-ins, sleep logs, coping entries, symptom logs, medication entries, triggers, journal entries).
• • Most Common: Top emotions, symptoms, and triggers by frequency count.
• • Coping Effectiveness: Average effectiveness rating across coping entries in range.
• • Medication: Count of missed doses vs. total entries.
• • Notable Days: The check-in with the lowest mood and the check-in with the highest stress, selected by simple comparison.

The report is designed to be printed or saved as a PDF to bring to a healthcare appointment. It is a summary of self-reported data, not a clinical assessment.

What Data Stays Local

All tracker data is stored in your browser's local storage (localStorage) on the device you are using. Nothing you enter — no mood ratings, sleep entries, journal text, symptoms, triggers, coping logs, or medication entries — is ever sent to a server. There is no account, no login, and no cloud sync. Clearing your browser data permanently removes all entries. See our Privacy page for full details.

Limitations

• • Self-reported data: All entries are subjective. Patterns and averages reflect what you entered, not an objective clinical measure.
• • No clinical scoring: The 1–10 scales are not validated instruments. No thresholds, diagnoses, or clinical interpretations are applied.
• • No correlation analysis: The Patterns page shows visual summaries but does not calculate statistical correlations. Any apparent connection between sleep and mood is visual only, not a statistical finding.
• • Device-bound: Data does not sync between devices. If you use multiple browsers or devices, each has its own separate dataset.
• • No data recovery: If you clear your browser data, entries cannot be recovered.

Source Methodology for Health Claims

The educational articles in the Learn section reference general findings from mental-health research. Where specific claims are made, the source is named in the article text. These sources include:

• • Sleep and depression risk: Baglioni et al. (2011), a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, found that insomnia approximately doubles the risk of developing depression.
• • Sleep duration: The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7–9 hours of sleep per night for most adults.
• • CBT for anxiety: Multiple meta-analyses, including Hofmann et al. (2012) published in Cognitive Therapy and Research, support CBT as the psychotherapy with the strongest evidence base for anxiety disorders.
• • Expressive writing: Pioneered by James Pennebaker (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986), expressive writing has been studied extensively for its effects on stress, mood, and well-being.
• • Affect labeling: Lieberman et al. (2007), published in Psychological Science, found that putting feelings into words reduces emotional intensity.

These references are provided for educational context only. They do not imply that the trackers on this site replicate the methodologies used in those studies.