welbeck I think you are right, I can remember starting school and being very puzzled that other children could not read.
My mother used to sing me to sleep with lullabies. I can still remember them. She read to me, not at bedtime, but after lunch.
I think reading to a child once they are in bed is relatively recent development. It is dependent on their being a good level of lighting and probably a bedside lamp in the room and my memory of childhood is of 60 watt bulbs in bedrooms, because electricity was expensive. I can remember in the 1970s an electrician being amazed that we had 100 watt bulbs in every ceiling light in the house, he clearly thought it a wanton extravagence.
I read to my children a lot because it was what DS most enjoyed, a cuddle and a read, but again, I did it mainly during the day. Once the children could read, which was pre-school, I just tucked them up in bed with a book. They had bedside lamps.