What to do about my cat clawing me in the eyes when I sleep?

[kef33890]

I'm at a loss of what to do... When I sleep at night, she has started repeatedly clawing me in the eye over and over again after screaming at her "No." She does this when I'm trying to sleep.

Why does she do this? And how can I get her to stop? Please help me. What can I do?

 

[cmshap]

Ouch! I am going to assume that this is the same behavior of cats waking up their humans at night, which is a common problem. But clawing at your eyes may be a particularly painful way that your particular cat chooses to use.

If this is the case (and I could be wrong, but this is just the first explanation I am looking at), you can try the standard things for dealing with a cat who wakes you up at night.

Engage in a play session late at night, as close to bedtime as you can. Also, change her evening meal to later in the night, if possible. And establish a routine for all of these things. So if you do a play session and a meal before bed, try to do so at the same time as regularly as possible.

These are the basic things for dealing with a cat who wakes you up at night. Hopefully, that's all that this is.

 

[ArtNJ]

Personally, unless hunger is the reason the cat is waking you (since that is easily fixable) I'd exclude the cat from the bedroom. Its exceptionally rare for cats to cause their owners serious injury, but it does happen. And you don't want to be the cautionary tale.

If you cant stand the thought of doing that, you can give cmshap 's advice a go. The only thing I'd add there is that if hunger is the issue, there will be other solutions. Leaving dry out overnight. A timed feeder. Switching the before bed meal to wet food, which is more filling.

It can be hard to extinguish attention seeking behaviors. Even negative attention sometimes counts as attention. So if this is attention seeking, it might be hard to deal with.

 

[kef33890]

Thank you. I tried putting her outside the bedroom at night, but she will claw the door and whine pitifully until I let her back in. She is so used to sleeping with me, and has been since I got her. I really don't know what to do.

 

[ArtNJ]

Usually door whining ends in a few days or at worst a week or two. But it can certainly outlast one's sanity! And sometimes they can even damage the door. And I've seen posts, very very rarely, that claim that the whining never stopped. So I certainly won't pretend its easy.

I've not had bedroom door whining in many years, when I was young and not so experienced, and I tried yelling at the cat, squirting it -- none of that works. Negative attention really does count as attention at times. Ignoring the cat did eventually work, after some real pain. In the long run, we moved into a house with a finished basement, and our cats have slept there evermore. I'd never go back, but many many here do make it work so perhaps others will have advice.

 

[Hellenww]

First get those naiks trimmed. There are plenty of Youtube instructional videos or ask your vet for a tech appt. It will still hurt but less.

My 18mt Leo and Luna each wake me for attention.
Leo kneeds and now that it's getting cool the only part out of the covers is my face. He's 18lb, strong with giant paws, and bad about keeping his claws in. I used to be able to roll him over and pull him in to cuddle. I pull the covers up and push between us. Pulling an extra pillow between us also worked. If I turn away he'll stay where he is.
Luna is a licker and nibbler. She long, thin, determined, and slippery as a seal. None of the Leo techniques work with her. Sometimes blowing in her face works. Strong enough to annoy her but not so strong that it scares her. Sometimes if I pull her close and massage her nape she'll sleep for an hour. Sometimes wrapping the blanket around her makes her leave. Luna wins about 1/2 the time and I get up early.

So aggressive love mostly works for me.

 

[rubysmama]

Oh, ouch. Although she hasn't done it yet, I have worried about Ruby scratching my eye when she's crawling all over me when I'm sleeping. But so far the worst has been her head bumping me right in the eye.

If putting your cat out of the bedroom at night isn't an option, maybe try wearing a sleep mask to bed, to protect your eyes.

TCS does have this article that might be helpful:
How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night (Step-By-Step Plan) - TheCatSite

 

[fionasmom]

There is a lot of excellent advice here, and I was going to add that, in the extreme, as rubysmama said, get a sleep mask. There are a lot of them on Amazon and you can get one that is advertised as "contoured" or "no eye pressure". They are not very expensive and do not feel as if you have blindfolded yourself with a scarf. In the meantime, you can do whatever behavior modification or sleeping rearrangement that you want.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I agree with all of the above suggestions, but am curious how old your cat is, and when did this behavior start? What changes in the household may coincide with this behavior change? Think long and hard before you respond.

The last thing to do is shut her out of the room, until there are no other options left. She is looking for attention, for whatever reason, so until you test all possibilities to see why she is seeking attention, depriving her of the attention isn't getting to the answer.
See if the TCS article above might help you to sort through probable issues.