Proud moment: catching the kid up at midnight reading. I can verify it's actually impossible to tell a child off for something you both did and totally approve of.
Even worse: getting caught doing midnight reading by your 2 year old. Who absolutely isn't going to tell you off, but joins you. hashtagproudmomentsinparenting
My soon to be 12 year old has been 'sneaking' books/lights into his room for most of the last decade. It is a cool problem to have, except he tends to do it to excess, and end up not getting much sleep. For days at a time.
Serious passion for reading, though we did end up having to 'bring the hammer down' and shake him down for lights before bed, alas.
I missed a lot of sleep for my books at that age. It did have some of the negative qualities of an addiction, and still can drag me in -- I broke my toe last week, and tried reading a novel to keep my mind off the pain, and finished it around 5am. And realized I was exhausted, and my shattered toe was throbbing madly, and I hadn't even taken any pills for pain.
My parents quickly realized that "go to your room" was totally a non-punishment for me, and they couldn't reasonably do anything to stop me from reading after they'd gone to bed.
I'd suggest working with your son on flexible solutions -- it could work to ask him to always read more advanced stuff (with more challenging vocabulary, plot, etc.) at bedtime so that it takes more brain-work... that makes it a bit more likely that he'll put it down when he's really tired.
The main thing (I think -- my oldest is only 5) is to see if he himself thinks there's a problem, and (if so) help him hack his own lifestyle, acknowledging that you don't know the answer, but you can help experiment & track the results.
It's pretty much a solved problem. We talked about it, over the course of several years.
Mostly, for him, it's about self moderation/regulation. He's mildly autistic, so it's super easy for him to get 'stuck' on many types of tasks/actions.
He is now able to grasp and internalize the consequences of staying up all night reading. :)
In a true miracle of sweet reason working on kids, we said "you should go to sleep so you won't be too tired in the morning for school" AND SHE LISTENED.
I'm always caught in that dilemma. After all, you tend to learn more and with more efficiency under your own direction than you ever do in school. I guess it depends what type of books they're reading. Perhaps start grooming his library ;)
