Not med-free right now, but did it consciously without meds or diagnosis for years... and will be doing so again within a few years I expect.

Sleep routine and self-awareness are in fact key. Know your triggers, know your early signs of heading into an episode. Know what to do for yourself to help minimize or prevent the episode (for example, if I'm getting depressed I make myself still go out, but I will limit my interactions to things that are more manageable - so smaller groups in quieter environments.. if I am heading into hypomania I try to not feed in to the energy, so I keep a set time limit on chores and try to coerce myself into doing relaxing things like reading).