our cat won't let us sleep

Our almost one-year-old cat, Simon, won't let us sleep. We live in a one-bedroom apartment, meaning we hear everything that goes on in the place. While my husband and I are trying to sleep, our cat gets into all kinds of mischief constantly interrupting our sleep by the noise he creates. When we are in bed Simon goes all the places he knows he is not supposed to be: on my desk, and on my husband's desk he rearranges things, knocks stuff over, plays with practically everything, messes with the papers, and takes off with items. He gets on the bookshelves where he does the same things and also playing with my husbands sports metals to make them clank; He goes on the entertainment set where he leaps from speaker to speaker, sometimes knocking the heavy speaker to the ground with a crash, and knocking over cards. He gets in the recycling bin and plays around, into the kitchen sink and onto the stove to explore pots or pans. This all starts the moment we go to bed.

In the morning starting anywhere from 3:30 am to 6 am, Simon starts bringing his ruckus and games into our side of the apartment and into the bedroom. He goes into the bathroom, plays with the shower curtain, plays with items on the shelves, and knocks them down. Then he starts making noise with the closet doors by batting at them with his paws; he plays with the venetian blinds; rubs his paws vigorously on my canvas wardrobe, gets on our side tables, knocks over whatever he can find over (clocks, glasses, rings, hearing aids, etc), rattles the metal laundry drying rack like an alarm to get us up, and chews on things like the label on the air conditioning cord, and of course if he finds anything worthy of making a noise he will come and play with it in the bedroom. He meows too. HE IS DRIVING US NUTS! My husband is getting impatient that he cannot get any sleep in. Please can you help?

Sounds like he's trying to get your attention. The easiest suggestion, which you might have heard/will hear often, is to play for a very intense time (e.g. hour) before bed with interactive toys. The important thing is to transition him out of play with lowering the intensity of the play and then feeding (mock hunt) a little snack. Maybe some petting to relax if oyur cat enjoys it. As annoying as it is, if you wake up and give him attention when he's getting into everything, you're likely to reinforce his behavior (whatever gets you to pay him attention, right?). You might hear to get a second kitty to keep him company and burn some energym but if your space is restricted that might be hard!

I hope this helps

Alex

Agreed. You're going to have to try to tire him out right before you and your husband go to bed. Unfortunately, unlike humans, cats (especially young ones like your little guy) are very active during the night.

Can you close your bedroom door while you're sleeping so that Simon's activities are at least restricted to the rest of the apartment? I also highly recommend getting a white noise machine to block out the noise that he makes.

I found this little pamphlet that sums things up rather nicely: http://www.friendsofpets.org/NoisesInTheNight.pdf

By the way --- is he neutered? If he isn't, that would likely calm him down as well.

I agree with playing vigorously with him in the early evening and before you go to sleep.

I also agree that having some sort of white noise in your bedroom would be very helpful.

And I also think that getting him a little friend may help calm down the nighttime crazies.

Very important, please make sure that you are NOT communicating to him during these late night hours as he makes noise - each time you speak to him, even if it is to yell or throw a pillow in his direction, you are rewarding his activity, as he is simply feeling lonely and bored and is seeking your attention because he wants to PLAY!

I have a 10-month old male Bengal, and he's a crrrrrrazy little boy (I mean that in a good way!) full of curiosity and mischief.

I have to play with him for a while every night to keep him stimulated enough so that he won't get bored and, as a result, unintentionally destructive. I make it a point to play with him until he is panting - it can be tough to tire him out!

I also am in a very small apartment with my two bengals and two moggies, and when the 4 of them get going, it sounds like a bunch of tiny horses galloping through the place, complete with smash and crash sounds as they careen off furniture and knock things over in their romping good time.

I sleep with a fan blowing in my bedroom, which is the only way I am able to get any kind of deep sleep. It really helps.

How old is this cat? If under two years then you simply have kitten behavior.

Trust me you will be a little sad when oneday that cat stops (all of my cats stopped mischief by 2 yrs old the latest)

Second, you have to train him to sleep in your room. He might bitch to leave but it's a dicipline that he should get used to.
Its a good idea IMHO because it prevents him from distancing, becoming antisocial, and gives him an idea of a terroritory.
All my cats feeding and pooping is in my room too.
I know this doesnt work for everyone, but if I let MY bengal loose at night, she would get distant and mischevous and loose her wonderful temperance, and maybe stop sleeping next to me.

Third, if he is on a mixed wet and dry diet, feed him the wet right before you go to bed. IF he is anything like my cat he will gorge and then pass out (they are so much like children! although i have none )

I have never had a cat I couldn't train to be on my schedule. Its up to you to show the will.

We successfully taught Jack (who we call Junior) to sleep in our room at night. My husband really wanted him to sleep with us. It took about 3 weeks for Junior to actually sleep through the night (or at least not play and talk loudly--the majority of the time he does actually sleep though)

He has a litterbox, food dish and water dish all in our room (as we close the door).

It took a lot of patience to ignore him through the night and deal with the fact that we weren't getting any sleep, but it paid off. Junior was about 14 weeks old when we started the process.

I will add that Junior is very dependent on my husband and I--he definitely is our first child. He was also a stray who was either dropped in the alley or perhaps something happened to his mom and siblings--so his socialization isn't the best (he is scared by people besides my husband and I--we never have visitors)

Good luck and be patient he is just a baby

Leslie