sleeping problems

[kas]

Help. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get my 7 month old neutered cat to sleep all night? He is becoming nocturnal and is driving us crazy. He used to sleep all night and for about a month now, he wakes up at 3:00 AM and won't go back to sleep until about 5:00 which is when the alarm clock goes off. We have tired cat nip and that hasn't helped. We can't close the bedroom door because he will cry until we open it up or he jumps at the door and makes a lot of noise. Any suggestions?

[wayne0214]

kas, first of all, welcome to Pet Talk.

When my furkids act that way in the early AM, it is usually because they are hungry, and that I forgot to fill up their feed bowls. You might try giving him some canned food before you retire for the night -something that he really likes. Perhaps that will hold him over until morning.

........wayne

[kas]

I give him dry food and cat milk before he goes to bed but maybe you are right, maybe it doesn't hold him over till morning. He loves to eat and he eats a lot so I will try this tonight. I am willing to try anything now. thanks, and thanks for the welcome. KAS

[lynnestankard]

Welcome Kas - hope you enjoy being here. It's such a good site.

We've honestly never had this problem with any of our cats - who can all sleep for England.

There is however an old trick from years ago - as he is only seven months old - I wonder if he's lonely. If he has his own bed try putting a small ticking clock under his blanket/bedding - this is supposed to comfort furbabies. Of course he could try and bat the intruder out of his bed !! But it wouldn't hurt to give it a try

Best of luck - let us know how he progresses and what his name is.

Lynne

[BigCharles]

My buddy (ThunderingBull) has that problem with his too little guys. They just got back from their "fuzzy ball" trimming last week. TB says that they are worse at night than before.

They just to sleep at night in the big carrier and TB would lock them in. They are too big to be confined in there together with the litter box, food and water dishes. They run the house ragged all night if they are left out together. He has taken to putting one in the carrier all night and let the other one roam. He tries to alternate nights.

The other three house cats don't seem to have that problem. (Yep, that's a total of 5 house cats.)

Our two seemed to have settled out of the "night crazies" sometime back. One trick that we found effective is to keep them awake during the day. If you see a cat napping during the day, go pick it up and play with it.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Originally posted by BigCharles
...One trick that we found effective is to keep them awake during the day. If you see a cat napping during the day, go pick it up and play with it.

This works for me. Tubby has long outgrown any craziness during the night, but he does walk around and yowl sometimes. It wakes me up, I call for him, he climbs into bed and all is peaceful again for an hour or two. To stop this, I try keeping him awake the whole time we are home in the evening until we go to bed. I do what Big Charles suggested and if I see Tubby sleeping, I wake him up and at the very least bring him onto my lap and pet him, or play with him depending on his amount of wakefulness. When I do this, there are no midnight or 2 am yowling sessions and we all sleep peacefully through the night. This might be harder to do with a kitten, but it's worth a try.

Oh, and when I interrupt his peaceful slumber I figure it's payback for when he interrupts my peaceful slumber.

[AmberLee]

You might also find it useful to instigate a vigerous game just before the humans go to bed. When my kittens were hyper this seemed to help them to sleep longer at night. "Chasing the feathers on a stick" and laser light chase seemed to wear them out (a bit).

Good luck. (And welcome to Pet Talk.)

[kas]

Thanks for all your ideas and hopefully I will find the one that works for Sunny. I did follow Wayne's advice last night and gave him some wet food just before he went to bed and I kept him awake as much as I could yesterday when I was home. I am happy to report that he didn't wake up last night at all until 5:00 AM when my alarm went off. He is the sweetest little boy and I just love him so but I was really getting frustrated with the lack of sleep every night. It is like having a newborn baby again. He is napping right now but I keep waking him up so that he will hopefully sleep through the night again tonight.
Again, thanks for the warm welcome and thanks for all the replies.

[Former User]

Welcome to Pet Talk!

I'm glad you got to sleep. I know the problem too, Casper and Kitty used to keep us awake a lot, but ever since we keep them in the bathroom during the night, we all sleep much better and get up when the alarm goes off, which is at 7:50
I hope Sunny will let you sleep from now on. It's a good thing to tire him out, but do let him sleep a bit during the daytime too, otherwise he'll be cranky!Before bedtime, play a lot with him, do you have a laser pen? That's a good excersise to wear cats out

[NoahsMommy]

Our cats begin to run around chasing each other at 10 PM EVERY NIGHT!! Then, they calm down around 11ish and sleep until 5:00 when the alarm goes off.

It may help that we have two cats, they keep each other company during their bursts of energy. We also used to play with them right before bed or in bed with the laser pointer. They would get really sleepy and rest the entire night!

Good luck!

[kas]

Thanks every one for your input. we did sleep pretty well again last night. I ran him around chasing his toy for most of the evening and then fed him right before bed. He slept until almost time for my alarm to go off so that was fine.

I did think about locking him into the bathroom at night but I love him to sleep with me so that would be used as a last resort. he does have an older sister who is an all white Persian and is four years old. She is very prissy and prefers not to play with him at all. He would love to play with her but she wants no part of him. She just tolerates him.

so 2 nights of fairly good sleep. hope tonight will be peaceful. Again, thanks for the warm welcome from all of you. There are no people like cat loving people.

[I_love_cats]

Joey does he same thing, he sleeps all day and wakes up at 4:30am. I can't close the door, he would just meow until I opened the door and I try leaving him in my room with the door close, he stays for awhile and then he wants out. My guy wants his humans up. You can try playing with him in the early evening, to try keeping him awake and maybe he would sleeps at night. Make sure you leave extra food before you go the bed. See if that works and keep us posted.