Do you sleep with your cat? My human has a rule that I have to sleep with her at night! But not everyone can sleep as comfortably with their cat as my human and me. Maybe your cat is restless at night, or demands a post-midnight snack, or decides that your toes make fun 3 AM cat toys.
If you want your cat to sleep peacefully with you all night, there are workarounds for most problems. If the problems have been going on for a long time, they may be hardwired and difficult to break. Whether you want to persevere and solve these problems is up to you. But no matter where you and your cat are with your bedtime arrangements, here are 5 tips to get a good night’s sleep with your cat.
- Establish a bedtime routine.
Cats thrive on routine, so creating one for bedtime makes sense. The routine most commonly used involves playtime and treats. Give your cat a good enough playtime to tire him out, then reward him with a few treats before turning in.The important part of this routine is to make sure to tire your cat when playing with him. Don’t leave him wound up or he will be too restless to sleep. Is yours an active cat, especially a young one? You should be playing with him several times a day so he is ready to sleep at night. Cats that don’t get enough activity during the day are more likely to cause a disturbance in the late night hours.
If your cat isn’t particularly playful — say, if you have a less active senior — you can create a routine around something else. Maybe a grooming session, or just a treat or a cuddling session. The important thing is to have a routine that your cat enjoys and will look forward to.
By the way, creating a routine with your cat is good for you too! Bedtime routines help humans settle down for a night’s sleep too. And doing something with your cat keeps you away from looking at your phone or tablet — something you shouldn’t be doing before bedtime anyway.
- Have a special blanket or sleeping area for your cat on your bed.
You can prep the blanket or bed by setting it out during the day for your cat to sleep on> Then once she’s gotten her scent on it and clearly likes napping on it, move it over to the bed. If she has her own special spot on the bed, and it smells like her, she is more likely to use it.
- Keep the cat toys in another room, far away from the bedroom.
Unlike humans, if a cat wakes up in the night, he won’t lie there tossing and turning or trying to count sheep. He’ll get up and go do something. For many cats, this might involve playtime. You won’t be able to stop your cat from doing this. The best thing you can do is make it easy for you to sleep through it. Once they’ve gone off, played, and tired themselves out again, they will return to bed.If they bring you a toy, make sure to return it to the play area the next morning. Don’t engage with your cat if he wakes you up with the toy other than to acknowledge it before turning over and going back to sleep. Don’t toss it away, or get up to take it out of the room. Your cat may mistake this as an invitation for a play session. And you don’t want to establish that kind of routine, and allow your cat to think it’s okay to wake you up in the night to play.
- Never get up to give your cat late night or early morning snacks.
The treats before bed should be the last time you give your cat any sort of food until breakfast. If your cat thinks you will get up to feed her, you will not get any peace! Your cat will establish a routine that is guaranteed to disturb your sleep every single night.Ideally, your cat should be fed regular meals two or three times a day and not be free fed. This helps establish routines around food. If you can’t do this, or if your cat gets hungry while you’re asleep, you can try a couple of things to solve this. Consider setting up a timed feeder that releases a little food at regular intervals through the night. (Figure out how much to work in as a regular part of her daily food intake). Or you can put out a treat puzzle in the room with the other cat toys. Neither of these require your presence.
- Ignore any attention seeking behavior from your cat once lights are out.
This is more important than you may realize. If your cat does something to grab your attention, and it works, he will do it again, and again, and again. So don’t reward this type of behavior with your attention.I will tell you a little story to show how this works. Back when Binga was young, she would claw the box springs in an effort to get attention. My human never responded to her. She just rolled over and went back to sleep. Her ex, however, would get annoyed, tell her to stop and just generally give her lots of attention. (Binga did not care that it was negative attention.) He had to get up earlier than she did, and you know what happened? The moment he was up — or on the days he was out of town — Binga never bothered my human with her box springs activity because it didn’t work on her! So let that be a lesson to you.
Have you already established the routine of getting up in the middle of the night because your cat is acting out? While it’s not impossible to change this behavior, it will take time, effort and a lot of ignoring. But if you want to sleep through the night and not have to lock your cat out of the bedroom, it is worth it.
I hope you’ve found some of these tips helpful! Let me know how you sleep with your cats in the comments below.
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Great advice Summer. Mostly my girls are pretty good. Rosie hears me moving and wants to plop down on me. Usually my face or head. Then starts the vibratory purr mol. It’s okay, I feel loved
I do most of these things..almost all.
My Sydney wakes me up at 3am, wanting to be fed and purring loudly. Long ago, I tried hiding under the sheets. Sydney came under the sheets, and but my neck!
My Princess is the perfect bed mate. But, she’s older now so she settles in well. Rosie is another story. If I stir she will climb on my face/head/neck and do cheeky rubs on my face. I try to stay still and not encourage it. I put my arm over my face. She’s still doing it. Oh well it’s okay. I’d miss her if she were not there
Pawtastick post Summer! BellaSita Mum got 5 outta 5 on this! Shee said shee has allwayss made a rue-teen fore efurry cat shee has had….
An mee has THE emtire rite side of bed an of loveseat! Iss a grate system fore sure….
***nose rubss*** BellaDharma an {{huggiess}} BellaSita Mum
I’m not a fan of sleeping with my Mom and Dad although Mom would love it if I did. Instead I will hop up a few times a night just to say hi. Not sure she likes that a lot but I just want to make sure she’s breathing (hahaha).
Hugs, Teddy
Great tips. We have sleeping blankets and perches and the kitties do pretty well at staying off our pillows (where they’re not allowed).
I have to be careful here so’s not to piss dad off. Oh sure, these are all wonderful, helpful tips, but apparently an elderly gal staking her claim on about 1/3 of a queen bed (and ACROSS the bed, to boot) is misery-making for a certain couple of humans. And don’t even get me started on being instantly drawn to the electric blanket that they keep on there. The way I see it, they are here to serve me no matter what it takes to make me happy. Shoot, here comes dad. Gotta jet.
Great tips, Summer! Ava very much loves our bedtime routine. In fact, she encourages us to head upstairs when it’s time, and once she falls asleep, she snoozes all the way through the night. 🙂
Great tips! Mudpie always goes to bed with me, she just doesn’t stay there! It’s like she’s putting ME to bed so she can have some quiet “Mudpie time” by herself.
Great post, Summer. We’ve tried some of these. Some work with me; some don’t. I used to get a midnight snack of treats which I now demand at 7 pm. I do get some wet food before lights out. Number 2 and 3 are things we do. 4 and 5 are more tricky. TW has always gotten up once during the night to walk me to the kibble. Only once. However she doesn’t make the rules so if I get up again, I’ll loudly sing the songs of my people. Neither of the peeps will come in but they do yell and cuss at me. Oh, and since when does your humans make the rules in your house?
I especially approve of the part about never getting up for a late
or early snack. It will soon become routine if you allow yourself to
be “on call” for snacks.
Those were good tips sweet Summer. Yes, routine works, even Simon has finally settled in and sleeps through the night now.
We were lucky with the boys. Apart from taking up most of the bed, once they were there they slept right through the night. It could have been because I took them for long walks every day and they were ready for bed at night.
I learned as a kid that you can’t give an inch to a cat because they will take a mile. Our cat would start waking my dad 1 -2 hours before he got up trying to get fed. Tinker would even bite the hairs in my Dad’s toes if he didn’t think dad was walking to the kitchen fast enough!
So I never react when my cats try to engage when I’m in bed. I never feed them the moment I get up. I usually wait at least 30 minutes. If the cat harasses me to get up, I wait an hour. My older cat does occasionally harass me, but I stick to my guns.
I just recently had to switch the treat/feed routine. I used to give my cats pre-Breakfsst treats. I’d give the 3 a small handful of Temptations. My older cat started not eating when I fed them. Now treats are served a couple of hours after breakfast. He’s eating more food. I did have to switch to dry. He was not eating wet food enough to sustain his weight. Basically, you need to watch your cats and adjust when needed.
This is a very thoughtful post with excellent suggestions. Those that sleep with mom and dad are pretty good about just sleeping. Some of us may get up in the middle of the night and play, but we don’t disturb our humans to do it. Mom just knows we have when she finds a toy in her shoe or toys spread throughout the bedroom. XOCK, angel Lily Olivia, angel Mauricio, Misty May, angel Giulietta, angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy, Sawyer & Kizmet
Great tips, but Joanie won’t be ignored. She likes me to be on my left side and if I am not, she will keep walking on me and pawing at me until I give in. Sammy is always with me and sleeps on my pillows, he lets me have a small corner. 🙂
I can’t sleep without him. XO
Great tips! I had dogs before I had cats and the dogs didn’t sleep on the bed. The first time I slept with a cat was when I was keeping my friend’s two cats while they were away on an extended trip (several months). One cat was a Siamese, the other was a domestic who had been adopted from a shelter. The first week, I didn’t even SEE the cats but since they were eating, drinking and doing their business I figured they were OK. The 2nd week, I accidently “fluffed” one of the blankets on the chair and discovered that the Siamese Harry was sleeping under it. He was suitably indignant but I apologized and then I got to see him. That night, he was yelling from the bottom of the stairs! Anyone who knows Siamese knows they can be very loud. So I opened the door and spoke to him and he hid. The next night, Harry was right outside the door yelling – loudly! Once again, I talked to him and he went and hid. I called his people and asked what was going on. They had forgotten too mention that the cats slept with them. Third night, I left the door open and Harry and his brother, Joey joined me in the bedroom – at a safe distance. By the end of the week, Harry was sleeping WITH me under the covers. Joey preferred not to be cuddled but slept on the bed. I got very used to having them there and when their people returned, I realized how much I missed having a pet so I adopted two cats and yes they sleep with me.
We sleep with Mom every night!
I don’t sleep with the mom, Summer, but she wishes I did.
I sleep with mum every night. My spot is beside her pillow.
She likes that she can reach over and pet me.
We both enjoy bedtime 🙂
Purrs, Julie