DD1 is about to turn 8. As a baby she was a super sleeper - slept 7pm to 7am - 12 hrs a night from 8 weeks old and continued to do so until she was around 4.
Then gradually she started to go to sleep later and later. She's a good girl and thankfully loves reading, but her inability to go to sleep leaves her exhausted, grumpy and disruptive much of the time. Her face is often pinched with bags under her eyes, some days she just looks grey and exhausted. I put her younger siblings to bed 7pm ish and then DD1 goes up for a bath at 8pm ish and lights out at 9pm ish. But after lights out she doesn't sleep, just lies there tossing and turning for hours. She is never asleep when I go to bed. Obviously she will often turn her lights back on and keep reading as lying in bed in the dark not sleeping is not a great deal of fun, I understand that but I feel we need to try and impose lights out in the vain hope that she might sleep.
Once she is asleep she is a heavy, deep sleeper, the problem seems to be that however exhausted she is she can't drop off. Over the holidays she has been getting up a fair bit later - 8 / 8.30ish and she would definitely sleep longer than that in the mornings if she could but with 2 younger ones the general noise and bustle wakes her. This makes it clear to me that she does need the sleep, she just can't seem to let go and fall asleep at night
What should I do? Should I just let her leave her light on and read herself out? Should she see a doctor? We have tried everything over the years: music / story CDs / relaxation techniques / relaxation CDs / herbal remedies / aromatherapy. Any other thoughts?
I'm posting here rather than in the sleep section as that seems mainly to relate to baby sleep issues.