Never a good Nights Sleep (for us)

The moment you respond to them when they wake you up at 3 AM is the moment you have given them permission to keep doing it. And they will continue to do things at 3AM if you respond to them.

I had a foster cat that loved to do this. I forced myself to ignore him and even refused to open up my eyes to look at him. In a few weeks he figured out that it did no good to try to wake me up in the middle of the night and he stopped doing it. When I finally adopted him out, his owner complained to me that he was waking her up in the middle of the night doing the exact things that I refused to give into. So I told her to ignore him and keep her eyes shut. He stopped in a couple of days.

I hear you when you say you are a light sleeper. They'll try to wake you up but just lay there and don't respond to them. Since they are waking you up now anyway, you need to look at it as training that will pay off soon enough. Then build a strong daily routine for the times you pet them, play with them, feed them and let them out. Cats LOVE routine and if they know they will get these things at certain times of the day, they will be more willing to leave you alone at night. I would suggest to do a hard play session with them right before bedtime to tire them out, then feed them once you wake up in the morning.

I agree with the suggests above from momofmany. When we first adopted Riley, he would wake us up every morning around 6am (not as bad as 3am .. but still bad!). So, to get him to leave us alone I would get up and feed him some wet food. BAD IDEA!! It got so bad he was meowing soo loud every morning and running all over our pillows until I got up and fed him. Then, we started to put the blankets over our heads and ignoring him. It took about a week, but now it's so much better! 

My cat, also named Memphis, loves to wake me up in the middle of the night for pets. I'll wake up with him rubbing his head against my hand, trying to force me to scratch his chin or something. It was cute the first couple times, since he used to not like being pet much, but it got old once the newness wore off. My solution was the same as momofmany menitoned. All I did was stop giving in to him and he learned to not wake me up.

 

Ignoring works best for most annoying behavior that is designed to get your attention. My other cat liks to bat at the blinds in my living room to get me to pay attention to him, and he only stops when I stop looking over and giving him what he wants (my attention).

I agree sometimes its hard to do but ignor them. My Cat before I desided to try and ignor would do anything she could from jumping over me ontop of me padding my face to walking the lenght of my body to get me to do anything and once I would giver her attention it was game on the rest of the night. I finily started ignorning her and it works most of the time. on occasion she will still run around and jump on me and stuff but it dosn;t last long. She even stopped scraching at the door and crying all night on the nights I put her out of the bed room.

Ignoring them and shutting the bedroom door (if there is one).... Or, you can feed them before you go to bed.  That way, they have no reason to be begging for food.  You could try rearranging their schedules so they aren't bugging you but they have been "conditioned" by you unwittingly by you allowing them to wake you up.  My mom would have put them in the bathroom downstairs or down the hall that way she couldn't hear them.  Is this an option?