My 6YO daughter has a major problem.
She likes to read.
The issue is, that she is so addicted to reading, she will do it when she really shouldn't. Like at night.
More specifically, she will wake up in early AM hours to pee (which is normal for her)... but frequently, instead of heading back to bed, she will turn on the light in her room and read instead.
This is NOT due to any sleeping disorder - she's not afraid to sleep, doesn't have any scary dreams, and if you catch her in time and take away the book and turn off the light, she will fall asleep in under 5 minutes.
This is specifically about reading in general - on one hand, it is not about a specific favorite book or some story she didn't finish. OTOH, 95%+ of the time this happens, it's reading, not playing or other activity.
She's been known frequently to read instead of other things (e.g. read instead of eating; read instead of doing homework; read instead of cleanup) during the waking hours as well. The difference here is that this is middle of the night and we aren't around to catch it and take the book away.
This is majorly problematic for 3 reasons:
First, her vision is already deteriorating (she'll need glasses by age 7). She's genetically predisposed to poor eyesight from reading, too.
It interferes with her rest, and next day she will NOT be as active/well behaved due to not having gotten enough sleep. Moreover, she is bound to oversleep in the morning on schooldays and delay departure to work/school for everyone.
It forms a bad pattern of behavior in her (read instead of other things; and not sleeping at night). Having suffered all my life from exact same 2 patterns stemming from pretty much the same behavior at her age, I know first hand it's a dangerous path.
We tried the "No books in your room for the night" rule. She simply quietly goes downstairs to bookcases.
We tried various mild punishments. Nothing dissuades her.
Just to be clear - she fully acknowledges BEFORE going to bed that she knows it's a bad thing to do and says she won't do it.
What approaches can I try and solve this problem?
The only thing I haven't done so far is locking up all the books in the house for the night; or making an Arduino to sound the alarm if her room light is on for >5 minutes at certain hours. Both seem like a gross overkill.