What automatic triggers are and where they come from

A trigger is something that may have set off a spin. A salty meal. A bad night of sleep. A pressure drop as a storm comes in.

VertigoMe can spot many of these for you by looking at the data it already collects from your phone, your wearable, the weather at your location and your food log. These are automatic triggers. You do not have to do anything to start them.

How it works

Every hour, VertigoMe looks at your latest data and compares each measurement with two things:

1. A default number that suits most people. For example, more than 3,000 mg of sodium in a day counts as high.
2. Your own normal, built from your recent days (14 by default, and it needs at least 7 days of readings). If a value is far outside your usual range, it counts as unusual for you, even if the textbook number says it is fine.

When something crosses one of those lines, VertigoMe records it as a trigger for that day. You see it in your journal, your insights and the Top contributors card on Home.

The trigger categories

On the Manage Triggers screen, triggers are grouped by category:

1. Body: steps, recovery, blood pressure, blood glucose, body fat, heart rate zones and stress from a wearable.
2. Cognitive: screen time, late-night screen time, noise, and manual entries like anger, an anxiety spike or a stress event.
3. Diet: sodium, caffeine, sugar, vitamins, minerals, and exposures such as gluten, tyramine, MSG, nitrates, sulfites and aspartame. This is the biggest group.
4. Environment: air pressure, humidity, temperature, altitude, UV, pollen and air quality, plus travel, jet lag and recent illness.
5. Physical: movements and positions that often matter in vestibular conditions, such as a sudden head turn, looking up, rolling in bed, getting up from lying down, passive motion in a car or boat, and visual motion from scrolling or crowds.
6. Sensory: bright or flashing lights, a loud noise, a strong smell.
7. Sleep: how long you slept, sleep stages, disturbances, and when you went to bed and woke up.

The Physical and Sensory triggers, and some others, cannot be measured. You log those yourself.

You are in control

• Some automatic triggers may not fit you. You can switch off Auto-detect for any of them.
• Some numbers may be wrong for you. You can change the threshold.
• A few automatic triggers start switched off, such as the separate grass, tree and weed pollen triggers, ozone and coarse dust. You can switch them on.

See also:

• Reviewing the triggers VertigoMe can detect for you
• Adjusting how sensitive a trigger is
• Turning off a trigger you do not think applies to you

When will I see automatic triggers?

Triggers based on the default numbers can appear straight away. Your personal normal needs at least a week of readings, so you may see fewer in your first week or two. The more you connect (a wearable, your location for weather, your food log), the more VertigoMe has to look at.