5yo taking forever to go to sleep

[Whatevertheweather]

DD was 5 in march so reception year at school. She's always been a relatively good sleeper but the last 3-4 months she's been taking 2-3 hours to fall asleep. She will call down about various things even though we try and cover all bases before we say goodnight. She goes up to bed between 7-7.30pm on a school night and around 8pm on a weekend. She is totally shattered in the mornings and really struggles when I wake her at 7.30am for school. At weekends/school holidays she will sleep until around 8.30am.

We always have a calming story before lights out and a chat to make sure she's got anything off her mind. But she'll then call down/play quietly in bed/lie there for hours before dropping off to sleep. She does want to go to sleep but says she can't. She has a black out blind. I think she is getting enough stimulation/exercise she walks to and from school most days (about 1.5miles in total) and does swimming and gymnastics after school. Weekends we try and do swimming/cycling/walking/soft play. She seems to enjoy school and is getting on really well there.

Sorry its so long! Does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried story CDs, etc? DD has an old iPod touch, which we've loaded with all kinds of stories - her current favourites are How to Train Your Dragon and Mr Gum, but there are loads of short stories, etc - she listens quietly and drifts off. I always listen to radio/ iplayer in bed, and can pretty much guarantee that I'll fall asleep bang in the middle of something I want to hear...

Maybe 7/7.30 is a bit early?
My DD goes through patches like this, and if she is still awake an hour or more after she's gone to bed, I actually get her up - take her out of her bedroom and do something else for half an hour, have a drink, watch some TV and then put her back to bed. She usually sleeps ok then. It's the same tactic I use with myself when I can't sleep.

We did try a later bedtime as I thought maybe she wasn't quite tired enough beamur but it took just a long for her to fall asleep.

I will try the story tapes habbibu good idea.

You can get loads from the library - we keep getting Mr Gum ones from there.

Exactly the problem we're having Whatever! Our DD will be 5 next week, so Yr R as well and is regularly still awake at 9.30-10pm despite going to bed at 7.30pm. We have persevered with a reward chart for a few months now and although that worked well for a week or so, even that isn't working now! ARRRGH....pulling our hair out..