Why doesn’t your cat sleep at night? The answer to this is quite simple: cats are similar to other predators and sleep by day and hunt at night. They often sleep up to 16 hours a day, only to spend the remaining 8 hours hunting. This, however, can become very annoying, especially if you have a younger cat who is very active and tends to play a lot. Many cat owners lose valuable sleep time over cats who do not sleep at night and run around like crazy. Luckily, there are several easy ways to make your cat sleep at night.
Cats tend to like soft, warm, and cozy places, but you probably do not want them sleeping in your bed. You could try buying a small cat bed from the pet store that would produce the same effect for the cat, and place it far away from your bedroom, so the cat does not disturb your sleep.
If you still cannot make your cat sleep at night, and it comes meowing at your bed and wants to sleep on it, you could close the door or use some kind of barricade in order to keep it out of your bedroom.
Even if you create a comfortable bed for your cat, it may still stay up all night. Thus, to make your cat sleep at night, you should keep him up during the day. This requires some effort on your part though, but not too much, as cats find all sorts of different objects suitable for play. Small balls and toys work the best, as you will not have to lift a finger, and the cat will play by itself. Cats are quite easily amused, but if they are feeling tired at day time, it might still require some extra effort on your part to set them to ‘play’-mode, so to speak. Also, you may try tiring the cat out right before bedtime, so being exhausted, you can make your cat sleep at night more easily.
Dietary habits also play a very important role, if you want to make your cat sleep at night. Many cat owners make the mistake of feeding their cats early in the morning. I would advise you to refrain from doing this, as cats often wake you up, so that would feed them. This can very well ruin your good night’s sleep. The cat’s eating habits should follow a strict routine: if you stay away from home, you ought to try implementing a timed feeder or make use of food dispensing toys, or as an alternative, leave small amounts of food in different areas of the house. Your best bet would be to serve the biggest meal right before bedtime, so that the cat would feel full, and would not have an urge to hunt for food.
Some people hold the view that you should ignore your cat’s bad behavior, as responding to it, will only condition the cat to continue its annoying activities. Many do not find this view very credible, because sometimes it is very difficult to just ignore the cat.
In conclusion, if you want to make your cat sleep at night, you should be able to find a quick and painless remedy by implementing one method provided above. However, if you still cannot make your cat sleep at night, and it does not respond to these actions, you may have to consult a veterinarian for additional help.