5 am wake-up call

My cat has always been a vocal cat, but for the last week, she has developed a habit that's about to drive me insane. She has started complainging loudly EVERY morning between 5-6 am. She never wants anything, food and water are always full and when I stumble out of bed, she just lays down and looks at me. But if I try to go back to bed, she just keeps complaining. If I get up (which is KILLING me, sleepwise ), she'll stop completely. Until I try to close my eyes. As I said, this is brand new behavior for her, which is the confusing part for me. She's about 16 months old, healthy and spayed. I understand that she's doing this for my attention, but this pattern can't continue. I've tried ignoring her so she knows that this is not the proper way for attention, but since I can't sleep through the yowling, it's not doing any good. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Keep her out of your bedroom. Put her in another part of the house with a nice comfy bed, food, toys, cat condo etc... This is her nomal "preytime" her senses are up and on the alert because this time of morning, her prey is up and active and this is when cat's hunt. She is not doing it to annoy you- she is doing it out of instinct. There will be an article on site next month entitled Yikes! Nocturnal Kitty- in it there are tips and suggestions as to what to do with a cat that has what some people term "the midnight crazies" If you want to PM me, I will be happy to email you the article- but it won't go online till July-