Kitten scratching stuff to wake me up

Hey members!

I'm having an issue with my only cat that seems to be counter-productive no matter what I do.

After weeks of trying to get him to leave us alone at night, we have done it! he finally stopped poking/biting playing with my face and just leaves me alone for the most part. Yay!

But now he does this thing where, if he is hungry (around 5AM), he will scratch the side of my bed because he knows it will wake me up. I feel like if i ignore him, he will think the bed is an acceptable scratching area. If I place him on his scratcher, I feel like thinks "yayyyy Mom is bringing me to toys AND touching me so this must be good attention! I should do this all the time!"

And I know he is doing it to wake me up because this is the only time he touches the sides of the bed. All other times, he scratches the scratcher if he feels the urge to dig his claws into something. 

It may seem like i'm being paranoid about him knowingly doing this to wake me up. But he is incredibly smart. This is the same cat that had opening and closing drawers mastered by 10 weeks old. He is an evil genius. 

Hopefully this is obvious to someone but I'm not sure what I should do with him. 

Thanks!

EDIT: spelling/grammer

How old is your kitten? What are you feeding him and how often?

my snick does something similar, only she scratches one of the sisal posts on her cat tree in the bedroom. i just totally ignore it and she will head downstairs, where i have left freeze dried chicken treats for her and some wet food (for her overnight).

maybe a timed/automatic feeder, to dispense a small amount of kibble just before 5am each morning? that might "tide over" your boy until it's time for his breakfast.