I was diagnosed bipolar 2 at 59, after years of being treated for general depression. The diagnosis explains many years of my life, frankly, and came after being hospitalized while actively suicidal. I was mess. We're still working on medications, and that's been a journey in itself, but in the meantime I stumbled this tool, which has been very helpful:
https://insights.emoodtracker.com/
The basic version is free, and with it you can log your sleep and your mood swings, as well as keep notes. I've been listing what I eat every day in the notes, because I have a tendency to stop eating altogether when I'm in the depressive cycle. I shared access to this with my counselor and my psychiatrist as I feel comfortable with both, and there's a growing amount of data in there that gives them information to work with. By keeping notes that they're able to read, they're getting details I might have forgotten by the time my next appointment rolls around.

For me it has helped me pay closer attention. I had a recent episode when I first went manic, recognized this was happening (this was a first for me), and then the switch flipped unexpectedly and with no warning, and I felt the depression coming on. The really deep depression I get, which is always accompanied by suicidal ideations these days. I got in the program and just kept notes over a 24 hour period as I fought against waves of depression washing over me. It helped me navigate and ultimately avoid a serious bout this time (again, a first, both that I saw the depression coming and I did more than just tumble into it, I fought it; I had a tool to use).

The result is that both my doctor and therapist have a written record of exactly what was going through my mind as the episode played out. Really helpful. And the calendar feature where you can see the arc of your moods over a time span revealed that even as my mood was rapidly escalating before the cycle switched, I had been logging both good moods and mild anxiety. The anxiousness sprung from some stressful situations in my life that I felt I was handling well, but did that anxiety help push me into the depressive cycle? I don't know yet, but knowing that was happening on the cusp of taking a dive gives me something to work with. Something to watch for.

I have a lot of information stored on this page, and it's helping me pay better attention. It might be worth you setting up an account and simply tracking what's going on. In my case, I'm actually finding it more helpful than any of the meds I've been on since my diagnosis.