Our kids have a very early bedtime-7:30-8 PM but our problem has become their actual fall asleep time. The bedtime ritual at our house is this: listen to audio books/dramas, read, Mommy comes up and tucks in most nights in the middle of listening and reading. We are blessed that none of our kids share a room (yet), so they read until they are tired and then go to sleep. This hasn't been a problem until recently. We've noticed our oldest keeping herself awake propped up until 10-sometimes 11. Our kids are ones that must be well rested or they lose all sense of everything. They both still have nightlights in their rooms as well.
This week Tera had her first grounding ever for direct disobedience . She has to go to bed early and last night lost her night light. She fell asleep early and was in the best mood today that she has been in for weeks. She is usually our chipper child anyway so it was striking us as very odd. We just thought we were dealing with early onset adolescence. We started thinking and that's when the light went off for us. The nightlight is keeping both of them from falling asleep, it is actually working as a stimulant. So my husband told them today, they were both "too old" for nightlights. We removed them and put a stronger nightlight in our common area that joins all the bedrooms. They can still read but by flashlight and only until "lights out", which will probably be 9 PM. I went up tonight 30 minutes before to check on Michael and they both had already turned over and winding down for sleep.
I know as a parent you are always tweeking things- what works today might not work tomorrow. But here's hoping and praying I wake up to "chipper" children tomorrow and the next day and the next, etc.