5 yr old tired but won´t sleep

[beanbuile]

Need some advice on managing sleeptime with my 5 yr old DD. It can take 2 hours of persuasion, checking and other trying-to-ignore tactics til she falls asleep. The easy way is to stay in room with her very quietly and she can be asleep in 10 mins, and sometimes the 1, 2, 3 minute checking thing works but the general problem is she can´t get sleepy. Not usually naughty about it, she´s just hanging around in her room and we ´re waiting to get on with our evening. (No problems with the 2 yr old, she´s a dream bedtime girl.) Might be connected to her having a dummy until we persuaded her to give it to Santa last Christmas, but she hasn´t taken to anything else as a comfort to help her sleep, just the company of me or the daddy. She is well tired, up 12 hours earlier and a full day at school, very active, eats well. Have had same routine of teeth, pjs, stories and some own reading time, then ´off to sleep now´.
Any tips on routines, means of persuasion most welcome!

What happens if you leave her? Does she come out of her room?

Some of the time she will, hoping we´ll let her sleep beside us on the couch (i know, i know..) or other nights she´s just awake in her room. When she comes out we always bring her back in, keep conversation to minimum. We have a small apartment, so it´s hard to keep at a distance from her.

Think you need to make the boundary firmer- you stay in your room/ we have adult time. It's your responsibility to sleep, or if not sleep then rest/stay in bed quietly.

Then it will get boring not going to sleep. Our 4.5 year old will look at books after we say good night but will always stay in his room. Having a night light has been great for him- I know some people don't like them. We're lucky he's had a favourite teddy since he was little.

Sorry, not had much experience of it (lucky me!). Hopefully someone else will say something useful!