Nighttime/Bedtime

I, as normal humans do, am not nocturnal. I sleep at night. I know cats are mostly nocturnal, but I am wondering if there was a way to get my cat (2.5 years old) to start sleeping through the night and being awake during the day.

Most cats if left alone during the day will sleep most of the time. Their active time will then be when their humans are home at night/ during the night. If you can't be at home during the day, like most of us, try tiring your furball out before you go to sleep with an extra heavy play session.

Ha! Good luck with that one!!! I'd be very interested if ANYONE can come up with anything on this. I guess you could close your bedroom door and not let them in at night, then it wont matter to you. My little guy wakes me up at least 5 times a night, but he is so cute I can't lock him out (much to my husbands constant dismay!!!)

-Jacquie

Works for me .......... ok he dosen't come to bed
until about 12:30AM but then sleeps tucked in with me until I normally get up to go to work at 6AM (but he can't get weekends straight)

My little guy brings me toys on the bed all through the night to try to temp me to play with him. It is the cutest thing ever!! 2 nights ago he actually brought on the bed one of those long stick like things with feathers on a string on the end. I don't know how he did it. He is just a kitten and our bed is very high up!! Sometimes I will play with him, other times I just pet him until he falls back to sleep. (Then the purring starts, which is like a lawnmower in my ear!!) I am so in love with Jinxy, he could do just about anything and I'd put up with it!!!

-Jacquie

Jacquie: How cute is that - I know, I know me too. Taking a nap on a sunday afternoon is another story. If I don't pay attention to him for a while he'll sit right next to the couch in the den where I try to nap and scream until I wake up and what a set of lungs! Have not been able to solve that one....Hmmmmmm

My Loki is a 19 months old Bengal that I rescued (considered too shy to sell, the breeder wanted to turn him into a barn cat - basically he was just not socialized at all) - now he is attached to me like velcro (would not have it any other way) and could solve the energy crisis if we could only harness Bengal power........heheheheh

Gotta love those cute little critters!!!!!

Even when I am exhausted from lack of sleep from Jinxy, I wouldn't have it any other way and would miss it if he didn't wake me up!!


-Jacquie

I guess I am fairly lucky. Most of my cats have picked up on the routine and actually sleep all night in bed with us. The rest play with each other downstairs. I actually have one that will sit and meow if it's past 11 (bedtime) LOL.

You are so lucky!!! Maybe when Jinxy is older, he will sleep through the night. Sometimes, he does pretty well and only wakes me up once or twice. And just so you know, playing with him and trying to tucker him out before bed NEVER works!! Sometimes it has the opposite effect on him!! Oh well....

-Jacquie

I do keep him out of the bedroom at night, but I usually end up having to get up and lock him in the litter room. (yes, there is food and water there away from the litter) because he wil paw at the door. Some nights he will be so insistant that I think if left alone, he will cut a hole in the door.

If I leave him in, he playes with everything in the room, but his favorite is pawing the blinds.

I hate putting him in his room all night, but it is sometimes the only way to get some sleep. I wish he could just sleep on the bed and not run all over all the time. I know there are some of you that are in the same boat I am in.

My cats (Sadie and Soltie) are pretty much on my schedule. At bedtime (around midnight) Sadie will curl up on the couch while Soltie goes to bed with me (infact if you don't go to be at bedtime she starts meowing at me and runs to the bedroom). When I get up in the morning usually, but not all the time, Sadie is still on the couch and almost always Soltie in the bed with me. There is evidence of nighttime activity, food in their bowls are gone and toys are in the bed. I have told my family that if they find me strangled with a shoe string (Soltie's most favorite toy) not to look for a killer. I just got tangled up.

LOL!!

We have been very lucky with Dani.

One thing I insisted on, as did my hubby, was that we did not want the cat to sleep with us. (I have fibromyalgia, and NEED sleep, and hubby works)

So...after a few "NO!" and two squirts with a spray bottle, Dani understood, no bed. We let her roam the room to her hearts content.

Now she never wakes us up. She spends the night in the rest of the apartment. Sometimes at 5:00 in the morning I hear her in the litter box....but she is sooooooo good.

I do have guilt though. I know she does not like being alone at night. But what choice do we have. I HAVE to sleep. During the day I dote on her every whim and wish. But at night I have to sleep. I still feel guilty.

I'll tell you based on the new experiences with my kitten. I keep him all day up with toys, but I let him have a mid afternoon nap. (He really tries to sleep a lot around 10pm, but I do my best to keep him up later till 1230.. I still put him in his room, because I don't find it safe for him to go in the computer room and not eat wires and all that.

He meows for 5 minutes, then he won't till morning. He doesn't do noise enough for me to wake up in the night.


Also, does anyone know what the recommended time for sleep for kittens is? I heard a kitten should get 14 hours.. but mine hardly gets that many. Maybe 3 in the daytime, 6 to 7 at night.