How to keep your cat from waking you up (3 tips that work)

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Edited by: Ingrid King. Last updated: March 29, 2023 by Crystal Uys

Do your cats wake you up at dawn? Are they preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep? As much as we love our feline family members, most of us would rather not have that love expressed in a thump on our chest at 4 a.m.

Why do cats get up so early?

The first step to changing this behavior is to understand why cats do it. Cats are, by nature, nocturnal animals. They hunt and eat mainly at night. Even though studies have shown that domestic cats adapt their cycles to their environment and human activity, in many cats this natural instinct still dominates. Add to that most of our cats are left alone for much of the day and probably spend most of that time sleeping, and it’s no wonder they become active at night.

There are two main components to modifying this behavior:

  • Stop rewarding unwanted behavior.
  • Use your cat’s natural cycle to your advantage.

3 tips to prevent your cat from waking you up

1. Stop rewarding unwanted behavior

If your cat wakes you up early in the morning, your first instinct is probably to try to go back to sleep. However, in most cases, it’s just not possible to do this with a cat jumping on you, attacking your feet, or pulling your hair. So finally, you get up and feed the cat. And guess what you just did? You’ve rewarded the behavior you don’t want.

You need to break this cycle – and if you stop responding to your cat’s attempts to get you out of bed for two weeks, you will most likely succeed. It will take some moral courage to do this for two weeks, but it will be worth it.

2. Use your cat’s natural cycle to your advantage

If you usually feed your cat as soon as you get home from work, consider moving dinner time closer to bedtime. You may not want to do all of these at once as you will likely have a very unhappy cat on your hands, but if you can gradually feed him half an hour later each day you should be able to change his feeding schedule. without fussing too much.

Play with your cat before feeding it. I cannot stress enough the importance of ritualized play, especially for indoor cats. Five to ten minutes, ideally at least twice a day, and at the same time each day, will go a long way to alleviating all sorts of behavioral issues. Playing with your cat before feeding mimics the cat’s natural behavior of hunting, killing and eating.

If you don’t want to change your cat’s dinner time so that it’s closer to bedtime, feed it at its usual time, but reduce the amount a bit. Feed the remaining amount as a bedtime snack after a play session just before bedtime.

3. Stand firm

Once you have implemented the above changes, you must remain committed to giving the new routine time. It may take a few weeks or more for your cat to accept that things have changed, and it’s up to you to hang in there and stay consistent.

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