Key Takeaways
- NIMH recommends keeping a life chart or mood journal; tracking turns vague memories into patterns you and your clinician can act on.
- The most useful daily items are hours of sleep, a mood rating, whether medication was taken, triggers and a short note.
- A weekly chart catches early warning signs; a life chart shows the long-term course of episodes and treatment.
- Paper works as well as an app for most people; what matters is a format you will keep using.
A mood chart is a simple daily record of sleep, mood, medication and anything unusual. NIMH recommends a life chart or mood journal for people with bipolar disorder, and for children and teens it recommends a daily mood chart. Below is a free printable weekly chart you can copy or print, a key for rating your mood from -3 to +3, a guide to reading the patterns, an explanation of the longer-term life chart, and tips for turning a month of entries into a two-minute summary your prescriber can use.
Why track your mood
Memory is a poor record of mood. Weeks of depression blur together, and hypomania is easy to forget or explain away. A chart fixes that. It helps you:
- Spot your early warning signs days before an episode (see bipolar triggers and relapse warning signs).
- See what actually affects you: short nights, travel, alcohol, stress, a missed dose.
- Show your prescriber how a medication change played out over weeks, not just how you feel on the day of the visit.
- Support a diagnosis: patterns of mood, energy and sleep over time are central to how bipolar disorder is diagnosed.
Research supports the idea. The NIMH Life Chart Method, developed to record daily mood in bipolar disorder, tracked closely with standard clinician rating scales in a study of 270 patients (Denicoff et al., 2000), and a patient-rated version also matched clinician scales in a study of 108 people with bipolar I and II (Born et al., 2014). The chart below is a simplified version for everyday use, not a research instrument.
The mood scale: -3 to +3
Rate your overall mood once a day, ideally at the same time each evening. Choose the number that best fits the whole day. If the day was mixed (for example, wired and miserable at once), pick the stronger side and write "mixed" in the notes.
| Rating | What it means | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| +3 | Severely high | Little or no sleep without tiredness, racing thoughts, risky decisions, others alarmed. Call your prescriber now; if anyone is in danger, call 911. |
| +2 | Clearly high | Much less sleep, talking fast, many new plans, irritable, spending more. Struggling to stay on track. |
| +1 | Mildly up | More energy and confidence than usual; still in control, but others may notice. |
| 0 | Balanced | Your usual self. Ordinary ups and downs only. |
| -1 | Mildly low | Less energy or interest; getting things done takes more effort. |
| -2 | Clearly low | Hard to get going, withdrawing, sleeping much more or less, falling behind. |
| -3 | Severely low | Barely functioning, hopeless, or thoughts of death. Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org; call 911 in an emergency. |
Printable daily mood chart (one week)
Print this page or copy the table into a notebook. Fill in one row each evening; it takes about a minute.
| Day / date | Hours slept | Mood (-3 to +3) | Meds taken | Triggers or events | Notes (energy, anxiety, irritability, alcohol, cycle) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM | ||
| Tue ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM | ||
| Wed ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM | ||
| Thu ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM | ||
| Fri ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM | ||
| Sat ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM | ||
| Sun ____ | ____ | -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 | ☐ AM ☐ PM |
How to fill in each column
- Hours slept: total sleep the night before, rounded to the half hour. Note naps separately.
- Mood: circle one number using the scale above.
- Meds taken: tick each scheduled time you took your medication as prescribed; write "missed" or "late" if not. Note any new medicine, including over-the-counter ones and supplements.
- Triggers or events: travel, a late night, conflict, a deadline, illness, alcohol or cannabis, big good news.
- Notes: anything else that stands out: anxiety, irritability, racing thoughts, side effects, menstrual cycle day, or "mixed".
Reading your chart: patterns worth noticing
- Sleep dropping before mood rises. Two or more nights of noticeably shorter sleep followed by +1 days is a classic early pattern for the high side. Treat it as a cue to protect sleep and contact your prescriber.
- A slow slide. Several weeks drifting from 0 to -1 to -2 is easy to miss day to day but obvious on a chart.
- Trigger links. Do bad weeks follow travel, conflict or drinking? That is information you can plan around.
- Missed doses. A cluster of missed doses followed by mood change is worth raising, without blame, so the plan can be made easier to follow.
- Frequent switching. Many shifts between up and down over weeks or months is important to show your clinician; rapid cycling has a specific meaning that only an evaluation can confirm.
A chart is for noticing, not self-diagnosing or adjusting treatment. Bring patterns to your prescriber rather than changing medication yourself.
The life chart: seeing the long view
A life chart zooms out from days to years. It is a timeline of your mood episodes, with treatment and major events marked along it. Clinicians use it to understand the course of illness: how often episodes happen, how long they last, what tends to precede them and what helped.
To make one, draw a horizontal line across a page for "balanced," with highs above and lows below. Mark each episode you remember as a bump above or below the line, as accurately as you can for timing and how severe it was. Then add:
- Medications started and stopped, with approximate dates.
- Hospital stays, therapy, and other treatment.
- Big life events: moves, losses, births, job changes, substance use.
Bring it to a first evaluation or a second opinion visit. Family members can often fill gaps you do not remember.
How to bring your chart to a visit
Appointments are short, so a summary is more useful than a stack of pages. Before each visit, take two minutes to write:
- The range of mood ratings since the last visit and how many days were above or below 0.
- Average sleep, and any nights of very short sleep.
- Missed doses, side effects, and any new medicines or supplements.
- The biggest trigger or event you noticed.
- One or two questions you want answered.
Bring the charts themselves as backup. Patterns such as "every drop in sleep came before a +2 week" are exactly what your prescriber needs to make decisions.
Paper or app?
Many mood-tracking apps exist. Common features include daily reminders, mood and sleep logging, charts and export to share with a clinician; some can import sleep data from a phone or wearable. The VA/DoD 2023 guideline found insufficient evidence for or against apps and web programs as a treatment for bipolar disorder, so think of any app as a notebook, not a therapy.
If you choose an app, look for one that lets you export your data, explains clearly who can see it and whether it is shared or sold, and does not lock your history behind a subscription. Paper has no privacy questions at all. The best tracker is the one you will still be using in three months.
At Willow & Stone
Mood charts are welcome at every visit, including the first 90-minute evaluation. Willow & Stone sees patients ages 10 and up in Arlington, Texas, and by telehealth for people physically located in Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado or Washington at the time of the visit. Bipolar disorder treatment at Willow & Stone explains the rest, and living with bipolar disorder covers routines that make charting easier to keep up. The complete bipolar disorder guide has the wider picture.
Common Questions
What should I track in a bipolar mood chart?
At minimum: hours of sleep, a daily mood rating, whether you took medication as prescribed, triggers or events, and a short note. Some people add anxiety, irritability, energy, alcohol or cannabis use, and menstrual cycle day. Keep it simple enough to fill in every day.
How do you use a mood chart for bipolar disorder?
Fill in one line each evening, then look back weekly for patterns, such as sleep dropping before mood rises or a slow slide downward. Before appointments, summarize the range of mood, average sleep, missed doses and main triggers, and bring the chart.
What is a bipolar life chart?
A life chart is a timeline of mood episodes over years, drawn above and below a "balanced" line, with medications, treatment and major life events marked along it. It helps clinicians understand the course of illness and what has helped. NIMH recommends a life chart or mood journal.
Is a mood tracking app better than paper?
Not necessarily. Apps add reminders and graphs, but the VA/DoD guideline found insufficient evidence for apps as a bipolar treatment. Choose whichever you will keep using. With apps, check data export and privacy settings first.
Can a mood chart diagnose bipolar disorder?
No. A mood chart is a record, not a test. It can show patterns that are very useful during an evaluation, but a diagnosis requires a clinician to review your full history, symptoms and other possible causes.
Part of our bipolar disorder guide
Sources & Further Reading
- NIMH: Bipolar Disorder (NIH Pub. No. 25-MH-8088, revised 2025)
- NIMH: Bipolar Disorder in Children and Teens (NIH Pub. No. 23-MH-8081, revised 2023)
- Denicoff KD et al. Validation of the prospective NIMH-Life-Chart Method (NIMH-LCM-p). Psychol Med 2000
- Born C et al. A validation of the self ratings on the prospective NIMH Life-Chart Method. BMC Psychiatry 2014
- VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Bipolar Disorder (2023)
- Lewis KS et al. Sleep loss as a trigger of mood episodes in bipolar disorder. Br J Psychiatry 2017
This article is general education, not a diagnosis or advice for your situation. Do not start, stop, or change a medication without talking to the clinician who prescribes it; stopping a mood stabilizer suddenly can trigger relapse.
If you need help right now
Willow & Stone is an outpatient practice and is not an emergency service. If you or someone you care about is in immediate danger, call 911.
For urgent mental health support at any hour, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. Both are free, confidential, and available 24/7 nationwide.
Dr. Stacey Forbes, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC
Board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and founder of Willow & Stone Integrative Mental Health. Nearly two decades of clinical experience; integrative, root-cause psychiatry in person in Arlington and by telehealth. Licensed in Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado & Washington.
About Dr. Forbes →