Cat Won't Sleep!

My cat is a domestic short hair, about 3 years old (black and white coloured), and she always gets up around 5:30 to 6:00am - sometimes as early as 3am. I feed her, make sure there is water and that she can access her litter box, and then I try to go back to sleep. The problem is she comes into my room and starts scratching my bed, and if I close the door she just bangs on the door and cries until I come out. Once I get up, even if I pay no attention to her, she's fine.

Any ideas on how to stop the madness? I love her but this is getting extremely frustrating.

My suggestion is to turn on a fan (white noise) in your room and shut your door.
The fan really does block out a lot of noises including meows and door scratching. You'd be surprised!

When you leave your bedroom at night, do not pay attention to the kitty and just go about your business (if you are going to the bathroom or whatever). By running to the kitty when it cries and jumps on the door, you are reinforcing the behaviour. It will continue to do this as long as you come running!

Just my opinion

I just answered another thread like this...I would recommend you get her a playmate. If you are the only one giving her attention, she might be bored. I think the fan idea is good too. I agree that she is training you. I would feed her late at night so she might not get hungry that early, make sure it's as dark as possible in the house so she might stay sleeping longer.

Park your vacuum outside your door, with the switch on, but unplugged. Run the plug under the door and shut the door. When she starts crying, plug the machine on for just one or two seconds, then unplug it.

Also see this article

http://www.thecatsite.com/Cats/Cat_B..._Crazies!.html

I don't always recommend a second cat, because it isn't always the answer and can cause more problems than you are trying to fix sometimes.

Thank you so much everyone - it's good to find some nice people that care I'm going to try playing with my cat before bed as the article I read suggests, and I'll try the fan too .

I hope this works!