Manic Or Insomnia?

I'm bipolar and go through manic episodes, so it's hard to tell whats really going on. It could be the switch in meds, it could be an episode, it could be the start of insomnia. I was sleeping quite well until we switched my medication from day to night and now at this point I could only sleep while talking xanax or amiben, but I could sleep. I'm on topamax, pristiq, metformin, and invega. Now for the past two days I've tried large doses of amiben and xanax and they stopped working. I don't know what happened but the first night I got 3 hours of sleep and the next with a higher dose I got 1 hour.
Any advice on falling asleep?

Hi, ispydork! I'm sorry for the late reply. Please post this in the Bipolar forum and medication forum too, maybe. You will get advice and maybe more replies that way.

I must have been very tired upon reading this to not have caught on sooner.

I'm on Topamax.
When I made that switch, my inability to sleep, caused by the mania, turned into boughts of insomnia.
I don't hit really high mania all the time anymore, but I still can go DAYS and DAYS without sleep.

To counteract that, my shrinkydink prescribed me Temazepam.
Knocks me out cold for 8 hours.
I only take it on the upslopes of "mania" or insomnia, whichever you want to call it.
It's great. Non habit forming, not grogginess and I can sleep.

I highly recommend it.

Just a warning. I took temazepam for two years. I was also told that it is non-habit forming. This is grossly inacurate. It is a benzodiazapine, same as valium, xanax, ativan and klonopin. I ended up continuing use while pregnant with my daughter, still being told it was safe by my doctor, until I had her, and she went into seizures and ended up in the NICU for two weeks. The doctors there caught the reason when they reviewed my chart. My doc was suspended and I had to go to a hospitalized detox to get off of it to avoid seizure and possible death from withdrawal. (This is very rare). BE CAREFUL PLEASE. Anything ending in PAM is probably a benzo and incredibly addictive.
However, when taken safely, i.e. not increasing your dose or misusing it in any way, it can be very effective, especially when combating other medications which prohibit sleep.
i am not on any soapbox, I miss temazepam, it was the only thing that worked for insomnia that has lasted my entire life. I just noted that you said it was not habit-forming, and I was told that too...you know the rest.

Like I said, I only take it when the insomnia from mania kicks in.
I don't take it everyday...
I'm terribly sorry to hear about what happened to you, and thank you for the warning.
We definitely need to hear things like that so we can all be properly informed.