I plan on implementing a fix my friends discovered as soon as my two kids are old enough to be out of the cribs. They bought smartphone controlled lightbulbs for their kids’ rooms and told them they weren’t allowed to come out until the light changed from red to green. It worked like a charm!
Could you tie this to responsibility? Like "Every day I wake up and you didn't do anything dangerous or naughty, the green light will come on sooner." Just that a life stuck waiting for the light to come on would kind of suck. I guess if you make their rooms fun...
They were very up front about what time it would turn on (they had big clocks in the room). They made sure to tie it to the time. And yes, they had plenty of books and toys :)