Help me sleep!

[LouiesHouse]

I have a 1.5 year old cat who I adopted during quarantine and is my only cat.

Recently, he has started some more invasive measures of waking me up at extremely early hours of the night. For the past few weeks, it has started between 3:30-4:30 AM and continues until I usually cave and feed him breakfast around 6:00 AM. He will start by walking repeatedly over my back/head. When that doesn't work, he starts using his paws to touch my forehead, mouth, and nose. If that doesn't work, he starts adding in slight claws to actually wake me up. And finally this morning, he took a section of my hair in a ponytail and bit/tugged it hard. I caved in and fed him at 5:55 AM.

I am doing my best to ignore him, but he seems to be getting more extreme in his attempts to get my up. Anyone have ideas to help me sleep for more than 3 hours at a time?

 

[CatladyJan]

I have a 1.5 year old cat who I adopted during quarantine and is my only cat.

Recently, he has started some more invasive measures of waking me up at extremely early hours of the night. For the past few weeks, it has started between 3:30-4:30 AM and continues until I usually cave and feed him breakfast around 6:00 AM. He will start by walking repeatedly over my back/head. When that doesn't work, he starts using his paws to touch my forehead, mouth, and nose. If that doesn't work, he starts adding in slight claws to actually wake me up. And finally this morning, he took a section of my hair in a ponytail and bit/tugged it hard. I caved in and fed him at 5:55 AM.

I am doing my best to ignore him, but he seems to be getting more extreme in his attempts to get my up. Anyone have ideas to help me sleep for more than 3 hours at a time?

You can close your bedroom door that’s what I do.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Since it is new behavior, it might have something to do with a food change you've made recently, or perhaps even a change in his regular meal times. Look at those aspects first. It could be something as simple as feeding him his last meal later in the evening, or leaving out some dry overnight for him to munch on if he gets hungry.

Your other option could be to get a timed feeder and have it open for him some time during the night so he has a snack to tide him over until 'breakfast'.

EDIT: Any time there is a change in behavior, you need to weed through possible reasons for it in case there is something behind it that you can resolve. If you just decide to take action without first trying to understand what is going on and why, you stand the chance of missing and fixing the actual cause.

 

[susanm9006]

As soon as he starts pestering you during the night you pick him up, set him outside the room and shut your door. At first there will be screaming, scratching and him trying to get back in. But if you don’t ever give in eventually he will give up and either stay quiet in your room or get used to being locked out.

 

[LTS3]

Try the tips here: How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night (step-by-step Plan) – TheCatSite Articles

If he's waking you up because he's hungry, you can leave some food out before you go to bed and / or feed a small snack before you go to bed. You can also try using a programmable timed feeder to feed your cat at 6am. Some cats learn that such a feeder will open at a certain time and will wait for it instead of bothering the person.

 

[Coolgram]

I have a 1.5 year old cat who I adopted during quarantine and is my only cat.

Recently, he has started some more invasive measures of waking me up at extremely early hours of the night. For the past few weeks, it has started between 3:30-4:30 AM and continues until I usually cave and feed him breakfast around 6:00 AM. He will start by walking repeatedly over my back/head. When that doesn't work, he starts using his paws to touch my forehead, mouth, and nose. If that doesn't work, he starts adding in slight claws to actually wake me up. And finally this morning, he took a section of my hair in a ponytail and bit/tugged it hard. I caved in and fed him at 5:55 AM.

I am doing my best to ignore him, but he seems to be getting more extreme in his attempts to get my up. Anyone have ideas to help me sleep for more than 3 hours at a time?

My advice is not to let your cat dictate when you feed him. As long as you feed at a reasonable time in the morning, he'll get used to that if you stick with it, but if you cave and feed him before you would regularly get up, he'll keep pestering you at those very early hours if he thinks it's going to work. I had this same issue with my cat, Gracie, when I first adopted her at 6 months, and I did several things (which others have mentioned). I left a little dry food in her dish for overnight if she got hungry, and if she wouldn't stop trying to wake me, I put her out of my room and shut the door - end of problem. I hated to shut her out, but I was really suffering from lack of sleep. Now she is 2 -1/2 years old, she still occasionally comes in my room very early in the morning, walks around me a time or two and if I don't respond, she jumps down and goes somewhere else and waits until I get up. I'm sure it will all work out in time for you, but I would find a feeding schedule that works for you and stick with it, even if it means shutting him out of your room for a couple of hours. Good luck!