Our 4 year old doesn't like to sleep. I know that sounds like what every kid says, but let me clarify. She doesn't cry at bedtime, she just won't sleep.
We start to get her ready for bed around 8pm. By 8:30 she is in her bed, and the lights are off. Come 11pm when we go to sleep, she is still awake! Again, she isn't crying and as far as we can tell she isn't afraid (she does like the hall light on and the door cracked, so we do that).
Only occasional will she come out of her room, and it is usually for a sip of water or to go potty. Most of the time she returns back to her bed without a problem.
We find her in there playing with toys or looking at books. If we take all that away she will stay awake playing with her fingers or talking to herself. It doesn't matter if she was in the house all day, or played outside for hours on her bike. She just won't fall asleep. She always tells us she isn't tired.
We have tried soothing music but that doesn't work. If we try to stay with her until she sleeps, she just tries to talk to us. We don't talk back to her; she just tells us everything she wants to do tomorrow.
We thought it was because she would take a nap during the day, but we even stopped that. She doesn't sleep in late, and is up by 9:30 every day.
Is this normal? Do you have any ideas on how we can get her to sleep earlier? Do some kids just require less sleep?