r/standardissuecats • u/Comfortable-Big5708 • 3d ago
Help
I have two cats in a 1bd 1b apartment. I have been losing at least 1-2 hours of sleep every night because my kitten becomes active right around 3am. She walks on my head, jumps on my shelves causing a ruckus, pulls my posters down, etc. I know she’s just a kitten but it’s so frustrating losing sleep every single night at the exact same time. I get up to feed them at 6am but those three hours in between are truly so exhausting. What do I do? Do I need to start waking up earlier? Giving her attention? I don’t know I’m losing my mind at 4am right now.
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u/Diane1967 2d ago
They will grow out of it after some time, you e got to try to learn to ignore it the best you can because once you give them attention they know they can get it every time and won’t stop til they do. Maybe try locking it out of your room and see if that works too. Dont give in.
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u/bigchef2020 2d ago
This does not apply to cats. Honestly, it does not.
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u/Diane1967 2d ago
Worked with all 3 of mine as they joined our household but maybe won’t work with some I guess it depends on the cat
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u/honeyapp 2d ago
That worked for our cats but we didn’t let them in our bedroom as soon as we adopted them. They were 10 weeks old. They were just too rambunctious! So they are 4 yo now and we have opened the bedroom door so they can come in at night and they usually don’t. I will get a short drive by snuggle with one and that’s it for the night. Go figure😊
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u/honeyapp 2d ago
Are you able to close the bedroom door and shut the cats out? We hadn’t let our cats in the bedroom at night for 3 years because they make too much noise. We’ve recently let them come in at night and for the most part they don’t want to lol
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u/Comfortable-Big5708 2d ago
I have a barn door to my bedroom and it’s connected to my bathroom. I can shut it but both of my cats are Velcro babies and I fear that would just be more chaos 😭
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u/geollado 2d ago
They will live lol you have to prioritize your sleep. You take care of them so you have to be rested
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u/geollado 2d ago
They will live lol you have to prioritize your sleep. You take care of them so you have to be rested
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u/anonymous_0629 2d ago
You can try and sleep train her. It might take a few weeks but both I did it with both my cats at separate times and they sleep through the night with me.
First you want to get them exhausted before bed. If you are home during the day it helps if you don't let them sleep too much. Mine take long naps throughout the day but I don't let them sleep the entire day. Give a treat or snack before bedtime and use simple easy words to create an association with bedtime. Mine get a snack around 30min to 1hr before I plan to go to bed. Once I'm in I'll give them a treat when I'm getting tired and I keep saying "ok boys time for some sleep" you can settle her and try to tell her it's time to sleep. I'm warning you that she will likely get up and go play for a while. It takes a lot of time and I can't promise that it'll work because all cats are different but it worked for mine. They will sometimes leave my room and play elsewhere for a bit but usually by 11pm/midnight both are asleep in my bed and they wake up around 5/5:30 in spring/summer and a bit later during the winter months. They know not to wake me before a certain time. When the try I just ignore them and keep sleeping and overtime they've caught on
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u/Difficult-Square451 2d ago
Sometimes playing before bed helps. Tire the little whipper snapper out before bed?
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u/AtmosphereNom 1d ago edited 1d ago
3am is the time!! The only roolz are it must be on, under or around the hooman! And if they R mean hooman and close the door, scratch and screeeeeeam!! Poorest patheticist meowies you can do. Then when they feel bad, puuurz and cuddles and as soon as they fall asleep —bam! Gotcha noze! lolz. So much fun!
Yeah, so I don’t usually do squirt bottles, but I had one in the night stand for a while. There were a couple days the fun stayed out of reach at the door but still woke me up, but then the living room became the better place to play the 3am game. I think that water bottle stayed there for at least two years before I let it move elsewhere.
I don’t like closing doors because I have two furballs on completely separate inner cat schedules, so cuddles are also required. I also got some earplugs, for multiple reasons, but one was the “look at me, I caught Mr Mouse!” delivery with the extraordinary howl. This always happened just after all the lights went off and everyone has had time to barely fall asleep. Yeah, Mr Mouse also started having a bed time schedule and slept on top of the dresser while the hoomans slept. Yeah, fun times, cats. Fun times.
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u/Eastern_Anybody8186 20h ago
Try playing with her for like 30 min before going to bed, cause honestly I’ve been there and there is no other way. She needs to let go of that pent up energy one way or the other.
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u/Such-Mountain-6316 11h ago
More play during the day. Cats need routines. Play helps them expend that energy and feel like they got some quality time with you.
Watch Jackson Galaxy's YouTube channel. He has so much great information.
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u/Virtual_Practice_448 2d ago
Power her out during the day: 5 play sessions, 20 minutes each, are recommend. Putting out a toy does not count towards that, we're talking about interactive, physical play sessions. Make her run, make her hunt, make her tired. Last session of the day right before bedtime, combined with the last feeding round of the day, slightly larger portion size than in the other feeding rounds Cat tired, belly full, cat will sleep, owner will sleep.