# Need advice....Yoshi won't let us sleep at night



## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

So....

Yoshi is now 9 months old. During the week, we go to bed around 10:00. He comes to bed with us most of the time, lays on my face/neck, talks to me, eventually goes under the blanket and falls asleep. 

Then, around 2:00am, he gets out of bed, starts talking to me, jumps on and off the bed, stands on my chest and talks quietly (I think he knows he's not supposed to be loud). He does this repeatedly. He also will go over on the nightstand and play with the window blinds to get our attention. 

I end up giving him a few chances, then he pretty much always ends up in his bedroom with the door shut, and I shut our door so we can't hear him crying as much. He eventually cries himself to sleep (also after jumping at the door over and over), but then he wakes up between 4:30-5:00 and starts crying and jumping at the door again. At that point I have to get up for work anyways, so I let him out in the rest of the house and he gets ready with me, I feed him, etc.

Any way to stop this behavior? :?::?:


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

I should also mention that I play with him at night before we go to bed. 

We'll play Da Bird for 20-40 minutes (usually in 2 sessions) around 8-9pm. Then at 10, I feed him and we go to bed.


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## Shenanigans (Jul 23, 2011)

I'm going to keep an eye on this to see if you get any useful info.. I'd like to find a way to stop Apollo from doing this every day as well, heh. 

I've even gone as far as to not let him sleep during the later hours of the day so that he might sleep through the night. The worst part is just like with your Yoshi, Apollo will bat at the blinds and try to climb them for attention. He *knows* I'm going to get up and go after him for messing with them. (I rent, and I don't want to have to buy all new blinds because his chunky 10.5lb body will snap the blinds in half.

Have you tried attempting to keep him up when he'd typically take a nap in the evening hours? I don't know if it'd help.. It sure as heck hasn't helped with Apollo, haha. 

Maybe longer play times before bed? Does he have toys that might keep him occupied when you're asleep instead of begging for attention in the middle of the night? I have no useful tidbits of advice really.. Boo


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## Houdini (Oct 19, 2011)

The way I've retrained adult cats is 'one strike you're out'. If they wake me up, they don't get to play around while I try to go back to sleep. They are immediately taken to the laundry room and locked in for the rest of the night. It normally takes them 7-10 days to understand the laundry room is boring and they have plenty of toys in the living room to play with.


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## yingying (Jul 19, 2011)

That's one major reason why I don't want a talkative cat -- they talk, at the most improper hours! 

I think persistence is the key. Keep shutting the door and ignore him completely. If you give in, he will know yowling works, and will keep trying. My cats use to sleep with me, but mom forbid, so I'm now sleeping with door closed. My cats will scratch the door, meowing non-stop at beginning, but after a week or so they just realize its not working, and they stopped doing that.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

Shepherd Book learned in about a week that playing while Mom sleeps gets him kicked out and the door shut in his face. At first he let out some heartbroken sounding howls but I put in earplugs so I wouldn'T be tempted to cave in. He only wakes me occasionally now and the last time it was only because SO got him all wound up playing and then didn't wear him out.


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## Dave_ph (Jul 7, 2009)

Do you have a full time job? If not you can adjust your schedule to your cats.

If this isn't possible there's a "Ted Talk" that explains humans natural sleep cycle being early to bed followed by a waking period of several hours after midnight then sleep again till daylight. This natural pattern should line up nicely with Youshi's. 

TED Blog | The science of sleep: Jessa Gamble on TED.com


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## joh (Oct 12, 2011)

Cats are downstairs for the night while we sleep upstairs. Dont hear them at all! I understand not everyone can do that, but for us it works. Good Luck.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

Houdini said:


> The way I've retrained adult cats is 'one strike you're out'. If they wake me up, they don't get to play around while I try to go back to sleep. They are immediately taken to the laundry room and locked in for the rest of the night. It normally takes them 7-10 days to understand the laundry room is boring and they have plenty of toys in the living room to play with.


I just thought of something....

Yoshi's bedroom has some of his toys, cat furniture, etc in it. I'm thinking I should remove that stuff when we put him in there for punishment, that way he won't like going in there. Although, he really doesn't play much when he's in there by himself with the door shut.


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## Houdini (Oct 19, 2011)

Meezer_lover said:


> I just thought of something....
> 
> Yoshi's bedroom has some of his toys, cat furniture, etc in it. I'm thinking I should remove that stuff when we put him in there for punishment, that way he won't like going in there. Although, he really doesn't play much when he's in there by himself with the door shut.


It might help, but I'm not sure I would use his cat room to punish him. I want my cats to think their cat room is a safe heaven for them. 

Another important thing, if he wakes you up is to not talk or pet him. Just pick him up and lock him in the room you want him to stay. Every interaction you have with him will "reward" him for the behavior and it will take a longer time for him to make the association that waking you up is bad.

Kittens are cute, but they are a handful... I love my old kitties. They mostly sleep all night. I only get woken up by Zia when Merlin has a coughing fit and needs his pump. And I'm sure she only wakes my up so I can stop the coughing and she can go back to sleep...


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## Abbie (Jan 13, 2011)

Evie did this every night for a long time. She'd get up from 2am every hour and just howl! We didn't know what was wrong, although we did wonder a lot of the time whether she was just hungry (she eats constantly). She started doing it constantly when we moved into our apartment- it was getting to the stage where I was only getting 3-4 hours sleep a night. Not great when working full time! In the end we tried letting her have the run of the apartment, bar the second bedroom where the hamsters are. She's fine now- turns out all this time she just wanted to sleep on the sofa! Little monkey.

Yoshi is probably just feeling playful as he's just a baby really. He doesn't understand that it's the middle of the night! Evie didn't (or doesn't) and she's nearly 3!


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

Houdini said:


> It might help, but I'm not sure I would use his cat room to punish him. I want my cats to think their cat room is a safe heaven for them.
> 
> Another important thing, if he wakes you up is to not talk or pet him. Just pick him up and lock him in the room you want him to stay. Every interaction you have with him will "reward" him for the behavior and it will take a longer time for him to make the association that waking you up is bad.
> 
> Kittens are cute, but they are a handful... I love my old kitties. They mostly sleep all night. I only get woken up by Zia when Merlin has a coughing fit and needs his pump. And I'm sure she only wakes my up so I can stop the coughing and she can go back to sleep...


I see your point about his room being a safe haven and shouldn't be used for punishment. That would mean we'd have to relocate a litter box when we send him to another room for punishment though....which won't be easy when we're trying to put him in there quickly to punish him (because he tries to run away before we close the door). 

On your second point, that is definitely a problem I have. When he gets up and starts sitting on me and talking to me, I do pet him by habit (and because he's so **** soft and cute). I will stop doing that. 

It would be easy if we could just shut our bedroom door and he could have the run of the house (which I do sometimes as a first step). However, after a short period of time after being shut out of our room, he starts jumping and throwing himself at the door....which obviously prevents us from sleeping. I suppose we should just let that happen until he eventually stops. I usually wait 5-10 mins and then let him back in.....and after that he realizes that he needs to be good and will come to bed and lay down....only to get up again later though! I feel like I can't win! :?


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## Houdini (Oct 19, 2011)

For the litterbox, I guess it depends on the length of time he spends there. If he wakes you up around 2-3 AM, at what time do you generally get up to go to start your day? At 9 months, he can old it up for some time so if you get up at 7-8, he shouldn't need a litterbox. Or you can go to Wal-mart/dollar store and buy a rubbermaid or other big plastic container as a cheap litterbox for now.

I haven't had kittens in my house for a long time now (except fosters and they have their own room). I used to just lock my kittens all night long until they got 14-16 months old and could "do" their nights. Kitten's sleep cycle tend to be: sleep for 20 minutes, run around like crazy for 1h, eat and sleep again. And cats ARE nocturnal after all. It might take a while to get him through that stage. Think of it as his teenage years and teaching good manners.

I hope you find something that works for you and him.


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## Penny135 (Apr 6, 2011)

A fan set on high does wonders to drown out noise! :cool


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## Lenkolas (Jan 18, 2011)

As many have said  not to reward his behavior, like petting him or paying any attention to him when he wakes you up...grab him and put him outside and close the door. Be very persistent, and he'll eventually understand that behavior causes you to put him outside the room.

But I just can't do that! Ice comes and starts talking to my ear with a very soft mew, and he even licks my face! And then he just lays there purring like a motorcat...who can resist to that? :dis

(eye bags growing every night :cool )


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## Milky's Mammy (Oct 17, 2011)

I would love Milky to sleep with us and not jump all over us after half an hour of sleeping. We've tried locking him out but it doesn't work. The only thing that works is putting him in his cage and he will sleep until we get up in the morning.


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## crstroik (Aug 20, 2011)

When Fred decides to engage in some late night screaming and head butting I roll over and totally ignore him. Talking to him, or moving him seemed only to reinforce the idea that if he talks he will get some additional interaction with me. It took several days, but eventually he learned that bed time is bed time. Now he sleeps like a rock and even loves to sleep in.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

The last few nights, Yoshi has gotten up at the same times (2am or so), tries to wake me up. I completely ignore him and do not pet him anymore. He then goes for the blinds.....though sometimes he goes over there and I watch him with 1 eye open. He knows he's not supposed to do it, because I can see him thinking about it and a few times he has walked away w/o touching the blinds.
But now when he FIRST touches the blinds, I get up and put him in his room. I shut his door and our door. He cries and jumps at the door for quite a while, then gives up and must fall asleep because we have silence for a while, which is when I actually get some sleep. 

This morning was good. I let him out of his room around 6 and I fed him. After that, I went back to bed and he came with me and even slept in with us! We all slept peacefully until just about 9am. I can't remember the last time that's happened.


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## Shenanigans (Jul 23, 2011)

That's awesome! Lol, baby steps. Hopefully the transition to peaceful sleeping will go smoothly in time. Apollo does the same thing, but he's never once walked away from the blinds. I have noticed him go over to them and head butt them and then look directly at me to see if I was going to get up.. Haha. Failing me getting up, he starts trying to climb. Instigator!


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

Send Yoshi here and we will send him back when he is re programmed .


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

Sinatra-Butters said:


> Send Yoshi here and we will send him back when he is re programmed .


You know...if you were closer, I would take you up on that!

I think Yoshi could seriously benefit from interacting with other (well behaved) cats.....he needs to learn some manners!


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## Milky's Mammy (Oct 17, 2011)

I've had trouble getting Milky to sleep through the night until finally last night he slept until 7am! I think it was really more the fact that he was so worn out from not getting his usual afternoon rest that he slept so much last night. He was snoring away by 10pm! That's a whole 9 hours sleep we had! He did wake up briefly in the night but went back to sleep when he realized neither of us were up. Perhaps you can try to wear Yoshi out during the daytime or at least don't let him sleep much, then he'll sleep like a baby through the night without disturbing you even if he wakes up.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

audreys mum said:


> ''I've even stopped him sleeping later in the day''... ''He cries himself to sleep''... Are you people really serious??? Hahaha. You are talking about CATS!!!! CATS! Not your sons or daughters. I understand loving ones pets, really I do. But not allowing your cat to sleep, so it learns to ''sleep throught the night''??? Come on!  Yes, Yoshi's mum, there IS a way to stop this beahiour. Stop pretending your cat is a child, stop TREATING it as a child, then maybe it will realise its A CAT & start behaving as a cat. Gee wiz people!!


Very unattractive and very unpleasant and very unnecessary.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

Some people might want to rethink making fun of people who love cats as much as we do.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

audreys mum said:


> ''I've even stopped him sleeping later in the day''... ''He cries himself to sleep''... Are you people really serious??? Hahaha. You are talking about CATS!!!! CATS! Not your sons or daughters. I understand loving ones pets, really I do. But not allowing your cat to sleep, so it learns to ''sleep throught the night''??? Come on!  Yes, Yoshi's mum, there IS a way to stop this beahiour. Stop pretending your cat is a child, stop TREATING it as a child, then maybe it will realise its A CAT & start behaving as a cat. Gee wiz people!!


When my cat won't let me sleep, what would you suggest? Ignoring doesn't always work.

And actually, I treat all animals like equals....because I like animals better than most people.


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## Mom of 4 (Jul 29, 2006)

audreys mum said:


> ''I've even stopped him sleeping later in the day''... ''He cries himself to sleep''... Are you people really serious??? Hahaha. You are talking about CATS!!!! CATS! Not your sons or daughters. I understand loving ones pets, really I do. But not allowing your cat to sleep, so it learns to ''sleep throught the night''??? Come on!  Yes, Yoshi's mum, there IS a way to stop this beahiour. Stop pretending your cat is a child, stop TREATING it as a child, then maybe it will realise its A CAT & start behaving as a cat. Gee wiz people!!


This is the second post from you that I've read that makes me wonder why you are here since both are rather rude in regard to this forum community. 
I did go back and look at some of your other posts - most were supportive, which is appreciated. Deleting the other rude comment really doesn't help since many read it before you deleted it.
There are ways to disagree with what others have said without being disagreeable. None of us agree 100% with everything that is posted on here, but we manage to let it be known politely.
Raising a cat or dog is like dealing with an infant or toddler. It calls for patience, preparation, persistance/firmness and love. You pick your battles/issues to deal with and go from there.


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## Mom of 4 (Jul 29, 2006)

Meezer_lover said:


> When my cat won't let me sleep, what would you suggest? Ignoring doesn't always work.


A couple of possibilities for you.
Keep your bedroom door open and let him have the run of the house. He can go into another room to play.
Put him in his room every night. Periodically, you can do a trial night of letting him sleep with you. If he does the same behavior, then he goes back to his room at night. If he does better, then he gets to sleep with you.
Let him have the run of the house at night, but lock him out of your room.
Or continue letting him start out sleeping with you, but removing him when his behavior becomes unacceptable. If you chose this option, you must be consistent in your response for it to work. You have to respond immediately, no delay as it can confuse him as exactly what he did wrong. Even one wrong response from you can cause it to take longer for the retraining to work.

Hang in there. It will get better.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

Mom of 4 said:


> A couple of possibilities for you.
> Keep your bedroom door open and let him have the run of the house. He can go into another room to play.
> Put him in his room every night. Periodically, you can do a trial night of letting him sleep with you. If he does the same behavior, then he goes back to his room at night. If he does better, then he gets to sleep with you.
> Let him have the run of the house at night, but lock him out of your room.
> ...


We've done everything you listed. What we have been consistently doing is letting him come to bed with us, which he is always good about. But then he gets up in the night (pretty much always around 2am), then tries to wake me up by standing on me and talking in my face. I ignore him, which is hard since I can't sleep with a cat talking and crying in my face LOL. After he realizes that isn't working for him, he goes for the blinds. At that point, I get up and put him in his room and shut his door and ours, so we can't hear him crying and jumping at the door. We can still hear him, but it's a little better with both the doors shut. 

Some nights are a little better than others. I hope it's something he'll grow out of....he's still only 9 months old.


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## Milky's Mammy (Oct 17, 2011)

Patience is the key!


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

Meezer_lover said:


> You know...if you were closer, I would take you up on that!
> 
> I think Yoshi could seriously benefit from interacting with other (well behaved) cats.....he needs to learn some manners!


He won't learn them from my cats!! They would just make the little cutie worse.

I treat my cats like my children. I dare someone to come into my home and challenge me on that.


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