Cats are crepuscular
Cats are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk. If you find this annoying, rather than punishing your cat for following their natural activity schedule, train them to shift their active phase to earlier in the evening/later in the morning. You might find it easier to provide kitty with quieter nighttime activities that are less intrusive on your sleep; and don’t let kitty use your bed/bedroom as the playing field.
Who’s training who?
The first rule is not to make matters worse. One reason your cat is acting this way is because they’re getting something out of it. For example, some owners actually get up and play with their cat, thinking they’re lonely. Others feed the cat and then wonder why kitty wakes them up in the middle of the night. This is basically training and rewarding the cat to practice this behavior. Certainly you should be sensitive to your cat’s needs and feelings, but if they are lonely or hungry, play with or feed them earlier in the evening.
Day or night shift
Nighttime activities are the norm for animals such as cats. Given the choice, a cat would sleep all day long and then about 8 or 9 in the evening, they would get up, stretch, scratch and go about the business of being a cat. Cats are most active at dawn and dusk. The only thing wrong is the cat’s activity schedule is out of phase with yours. All you need to do is to change your cat’s working schedule from night shift to day shift. This is much easier than it sounds.
Play sessions
You cannot expect your cat to sleep 24 hours a day, he needs to play sometime! If you do not provide some kind of daytime activity, he will spend the day asleep. Rather than letting your cat snooze all evening while you are watching TV, turn off the tube, get down on the floor and play with your cat. Tie a feather or piece of crumpled paper to a length of string and run around the house dragging it behind. Train your cat to climb their scratching post; train them to fetch and run back and forth between you and a friend. Visit the ARL’s Animal House store and look for new and interesting toys for your cat! Make toys of your own; most cats have a wonderful time rolling around inside a box sprinkled with catnip. Try to tire out your cat early in the evening as this will greatly increase the likelihood that they will sleep at night. Schedule feedings and playtime at regular intervals that are appropriate for the schedule you wish your cat to keep. The more regular you make the cat’s new routine, the quicker they will adjust.
Wake-up call!
In the daytime or evening when you see your cat sleeping – wake them up! Insist that they play with you now. Your cat will eventually sleep all night long because they’re tired from all the daytime activity and because they’re content their needs are being met.
Patience is key
It may take 10 days to two weeks to reset a cat’s internal clock, so don’t be discouraged if during this time, even though you are doing everything right, they will still automatically wake up or think they want to play or eat in the wee hours of the morning. Just be patient. If you give up too soon, you’ll have to start all over again.
