Constantly disrupted nights sleep due to cat...

poppysocks1

For about the past 2 - 3 weeks our cat has woken us up at 4am every night. She is nearly 4 years old, we have had her since she was 3 months old, and she is lovely and so well behaved (usually). She has always slept at the end of the bed, and although not ideal (we have tried to make her sleep elsewhere, she wont!), its usually not too much of a problem. (If we close the bedroom door to keep her out she miaows and pulls the carpet up until we let her in, so not ideal..)

However over the past 2- 3 weeks she has woken us up at 4am by scrabbling and scratching around trying to get under the blanket that is on top of the duvet, and once she suceeds she goes back to sleep, however on most occasions it means us waking up, lifting the blanket so she can go under it, then she goes to sleep, having woken us both up. Last night she was also kicking my boyfriend with her back legs as well as trying to get under the blanket - its driving him mad and I dont know how to stop this behaviour.

It only seems to have happened since the colder weather.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!!

Kimberley

Have you taken her to the vet for a checkup to rule out anything that could be hurting her? If you have then I don't really know what to suggest other then keeping her out of your room and thats no matter how much she wants to come in.

poppysocks1

Thanks for your reply. She seems fine the rest of the time, eating well, sleeping a bit, playing etc, it is just odd that she seems to have 4am as her wake up call! Last time we shut her out the room she really did whine, and has damaged the carpet by digging right down to the mesh so had to cut lots of "backcombed" wool carpet from the floor.

Buttonmoons

Sounds like my cat poppy, she rips my carpet up and headbutts the door until I let her in my bedroom! She also demands to be let under the covers, annoying thing is, she jumps onto the bed practically on my OH's head, and then starts her chainsaw purring that wakes us both up. We let her under the quilt, she starts plucking at our legs with her claws, and then 5minutes later, she's back out again and does it constantly throughout the night. No use when OH has to get up at 4:30am for work! I'm going to start locking her in the living room at night with her food & water and her litter tray, so I can get some peace!

Cats!

Kimberley

Buttonmoons wrote: »

I'm going to start locking her in the living room at night with her food & water and her litter tray, so I can get some peace!

Cats!

Thats what I do because my Oscar is a very very vocal cat :eek:

Poppysocks you may just have to accept that she wants to be with you and may not wnat to be left alone. Have you considered a friend for her to keep her company at night to snuggle up with?

lowis

the joys of cat ownership!

i have two male siamese cats, i adopted one in september, the other i have had for 13 years.

my night time goes something like this:

11pm - bed and some reading
11.15pm - Alpha cat power-struggle by my head
11.30pm - Alpha cat power struglle across my legs
11.40 - cats settle at end of bed
midnight - lights out
12.01am - C claws his way under the duvet
12.02am - T plonks himself by my head, and snuffles my hair befoe nodding off
12.03 - T starts snoring very loudly by my head
3am - T&C play Thundering Herds of Elephants throughout the flat
6am - T gets up for a poo (without a fail)
6.05am - T and C play Acrobats across my bed
7.00am - two hungry cats sit at end of bed making funny noises.

No wonder I feel tired all the time!

Sirbendy

mmm...familiar...

We shut them out of the bedroom, and they just romp..I can sleep through that. Then 5 minutes before the alarm...they scratch and meow until we get up and feed them.

Fridays we sometimes let them stay in the bedroom..it works until about 3am, when we have a scragfest, then it settles and usually I end up being woken by a "brrrrrp" in the ear from Hex.

He's quite vocal..but not usually a meow. He "brrps" and makes some really odd noises, especially when he's distracted and you tap him on the back/head..it sounds the equivalent of a human "eh? What?"..heh.

shelly

When I read posts like these I am so glad I never started the habit of letting our cats sleep anywhere else other than the utility room
I say cats, we only have Lily now, lost Coco on Dec 29th after having her for nearly 15 years. (getting a vet to come out that evening was a nightmare, but that's a different story)

When they were in the house I would only have to say 'out girls' and they would trot off into the utility for the night.
Its always worked for us, they (well just Lily now) knew exactly where they slept overnight so expect nothing different.

Wickedkitten

Buttonmoons wrote: »

I'm going to start locking her in the living room at night with her food & water and her litter tray, so I can get some peace!

Cats!

That's what we do with ours. The OH can sleep through anything but when they start running around at 2am bouncing all over the bed, I really can't be bothered.


We put ours in the living room with their litter box and water dish, close the bedroom door, and that's them until the morning.

Hectors_House

Buttonmoons wrote: »

Sounds like my cat poppy, she rips my carpet up and headbutts the door until I let her in my bedroom! She also demands to be let under the covers, annoying thing is, she jumps onto the bed practically on my OH's head, and then starts her chainsaw purring that wakes us both up. We let her under the quilt, she starts plucking at our legs with her claws, and then 5minutes later, she's back out again and does it constantly throughout the night. No use when OH has to get up at 4:30am for work! I'm going to start locking her in the living room at night with her food & water and her litter tray, so I can get some peace!

Cats!

My puss, Sweepy is living with my partner until my house is ready to bring her to.

She's about 5 years old and has also taken to cuddling down with him under the sheets whilst it's cold.

She waits for him to get in and settle down then burrows her way in and gets between his bottom and the hot water bottle and proceeds to tread with her claws on his sensitive bits!

4am is her time for getting out of bed and exploring.

We bought her one of those zip-up houses (made for small dogs I think) and stuffed it full of old jumpers and the like and sometime, if we get our timing right, she'll ignore us going to bed and stay in there.

Cats don't seem to be very good at learning to obey orders so you might try trying to settle her downstairs....and use earplugs to block out the cries! She might settle down when she realises she has to stay downstairs.

poppysocks1

Thanks everyone - the replies have made me realise that I am not alone with this problem, and I will also show my boyfriend the replies, as it will make him feel better. Unfortunately at present we are in a flat (hope to move to larger place soon) so cant put the cat downstairs but will just hope that the cat sleeps through the night, I think the cold spell started this off as she is usually fine.

Such a shame we gave in when she was a kitten and let her sleep on the bed though.......... we wouldnt be in this situation now!