14 Effective Ways to make your Cat Sleep at Night
Sleeping is a natural habit for cats. Cats sleep during most of the day time hours and tend to stay awake throughout the night time.
It is prevalent for cats to wake up throughout the night, although they like to snooze, they also love to sleep up to 18-20 hours a day. It does not always happen when their owners are asleep.
Cats are naturally active at night; they are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk. It could be disturbing to the owner as they may have cat related-sleep deprivation.
You might wake up in the dead night and find your cat doing some activities that make you stare at them, and you are having thoughts that these actions should get done during the day, some of these activities you can find your cat performing at night includes Pouncing on the body, toes, or your ear at night.
Pouncing on your body is an activity that can disturb you and make you stay awake with them at night. It may be aloof if your cat wants to stay up at night, but it is not reasonable if they make up stay awake with them. It might also be energetic play across the room’s materials or furniture, which could generate disturbing sounds to the owner and disrupt their sleep.
- Cats are natural predators. The brains and body get biologically designed to enable them to hunt mostly at night when their perfect eyesight can help them catch their prey while staying undetected.
- Their prey, usually small wild animals such as rats, rabbits, and birds, are less likely to notice dangers during twilight hours and become easy targets for the hungry cats.
- The same hunting instincts are responsible for your cat’s playful disposition just as you get ready for bed or sleep.
- Their crepuscular nature means they’ll be running up and down your room exactly when you’re least likely to appreciate it, usually early mornings and late evenings.
Most house cats don’t rely on hunting for their food. However, it doesn’t mean those instincts are not there. However, when trained, some domesticated cats learn to adjust their sleeping routines to match their owners’ waking hours.
Do you ask yourself why cats perform these activities at night and disturb your sleep in the process? Check out a few answers! Below are a few reasons why your cat might make you stay awake with them at night,
- Your Cat may be sleeping during most hours of the day, and when its night them, they would want to play and get enough exercise and stimulation.
- If you leave your cat at home, and alone all day, it will be boring, and when you are back at night, it just wants some company
- Your cat might wake you at night if it is hungry or tasty and wants some snake to nibble on.
The points listed explains why your cat wakes you up at night, It is not a good idea for them to do so when you are having a night rest, therefore, in this article, we are sailing on to tackling cat sleeping issues and how to make a cat sleep at night.
If you are a cat owner and wonder if your cat can sleep at night since then, tend to be most active at night, well, Yes! You can make your cat have a long night’s sleep while you do the same.
Check out the next section for a few tips.
Tips on how to make your cats sleep at night
#1 Visit your Veterinary doctor
The first step to take when searching for ways to make your cat sleep at night is to visit the cat’s veterinarian. It is to examine the cat and identify any medical abnormalities that could cause insomnia and treat them.
Just like human beings, cats can suffer from medically related issues that interrupt sleep. Illness such as pain, infection, cognitive dysfunction, and chronic Anxiety can make cats restless at night, thereby causing sleeplessness.
You might notice some behavioral activities such as;
- Acting lethargic or violent when you try to play with it.
- Unable to eat food or treats.
- Frequent Hiding.
Some conditions that can deprive your cat of peaceful sleep include;
- Pain, hormonal imbalances.
- Flea infestations, eye conditions, and deafness.
It is advised you take your cat to a vet when you notice any of these.
#2 Understand your Cat
Sometimes your cat may want to sleep at night but just can’t due to some problems they have, and because they don’t talk or show it, and you have little or no idea of what is wrong with it.
Find out the reasons for your cat’s inability to sleep at night. Most cats have obvious reasons for being up at night; you may not have fed the cat enough. Therefore, it wakes up at night looking for food while you want it to sleep as you sleep.
#3 Provide your Cat with the basic things they need
Basics needs such as food, shelter, etc. when lacking could keep your cat awake, cat’s hunt, eat, groom, and sleep to gather enough energy for another hunt.
When you feed your cat before bedtime, it will be full and want to sleep to regain the next hunt’s energy. It will also train your cat’s internal clock to know that late evening food means “it’s time to go to bed.”
#4 Keeping your Cat Active throughout the Day
Most times, cats tend to have a dull day, usually because they are left alone in the house while the owner goes out to attend to their daily job. Most cat owners don’t have the luxury of spending all day every day at home with their cats.
Your cat will inevitably grow bored when it stays at home all day alone so, be sure to provide it with enticing distractions throughout the day.
This boredom causes cats to have enough relaxation and sleep during the day, so by the time you get back, the cat expects to have social interaction and fun time with you, and these could infringe your resting hours.
You can create activities that will keep the cat busy while you are away. These include getting safe cat toys; toys that could move in prey like motion would keep them at alert, Hiding toys, or treats around the house.
It helps to teach your cat how to hunt, and it is an excellent form of play when you’re not there or at home.
You could also keep them engaged during the day with cat TV and related videos, set up a window perch, so your cat can observe other wildlife in your compound, keep a bird feeder out of your window, your window and Feed your Cat in a puzzle feeder toy.
You can also consider getting a playmate for your cat while you are away, although some like to be the only pet at home and don’t get along with others. You can observe your cat’ s reaction by gradually introducing a new cat.
However, if they get along, then you can sufficiently bring the cat over to the house, having each other’s company would keep them busy all day, and by the time it’s the night, they are already tired and ready to sleep.
#5 Provide a Safe Sleep enabling Environment
A Safe, warm, and calm environment can stimulate cats to sleep. Keeping your cat in a cardboard box with a curtain could give it a psychological feeling of security, and these would make it have a peaceful sleep.
The comfortability of cats matters a lot when you try getting them to sleep, provide a high resting spot for your cat, cats are natural observers, and love to view a broad scope.
A restless cat would not sleep. Attract your cat to alternative sleeping spots by placing cat beds, blankets, or a piece of your clothing in other bedrooms or houses where you are okay for it to stay.
Cats are naturally light sleepers, as they love to sleep a lot; at the same time, they are also ready to jump into quick action and be so active within a moment.
Therefore, there is a need for a quiet environment to help them sleep and not be disturbed.
#6 Ignore your Cat
Ignoring your cat could be very difficult, but it works. Once you observe that your cat has started meowing at night, do well to check it out. It could be a signal of some issues.
If you notice your cat is not sick and has enough water and food, maybe it just wants your attention, feeding your cats, when they refuse to sleep won’t make them sleep; that could be fun for them because they are getting the care they want. They will keep disturbing at night, hoping that they will get the same attention they got the previous time.
When you ignore your cat for weeks, they will understand that it’s not playing time and probably go back to sleep.
#7 Exercise with your Cat before Bedtime
Establish a routine where you and your cat engage in an energetic exercise just before bed. Cats naturally love when they are getting much attention from their owners. You could have some fun with your cat, making them very active until they get tired.
It may be challenging as you may get stressed out from your busy day and love to get enough rest, but you don’t want to get woken. Up in the middle of the night by your cat’s meow, I encourage you to try it out.
If the exercise goes well, you may feed them. These would probably knock your cat off, and cats usually sleep for long hours to have a peaceful night.
#8 Play "Prey Hunting" games with your Cat
Have a hunting session right before bedtime and always ensure your cat goes through the prey sequence to make them think like they are doing real hunting, make your cat Stare, Stalk, chase, Pounce, grab, and kill the prey, which could be a toy.
Take them through the prey sequence several times after they’ve had their hunt and captured their prey, give them a high-protein meal, so your cat feels like it had a successful hunt. These will get them tired and ready to snooze off.
#9 Get a familiar Materials for your cat
Familiar elements would help keep your new cat asleep at night. When cats are scared of something around, they would be restless, which could lead to insomnia.
#10 Establish a Steady Bedtime
Most cats love routine activities. Start your usual bedtime routine as your cat watches.
Engaging in several routine activities that usually end with sleep regularly will enable your cat to understand when it’s time to go to bed. The same actions should be repeated accordingly for every night, and lastly go to bed, remember to ignore them once you are in bed.
When they approach you several nights and don’t get the attention they seek, they are more likely to sleep since they get bored.
#11 Involve your Cat in your Bedtime Routine
Involving your cat in a bedtime routine such as bathing, brushing, cuddling, and finally taking to its space will adjust the internal clock into knowing that it’s bedtime.
Remember that this would have to continue severally for your cat to get used to it.
#12 Clean up your Cat's Toy before going to Bed
Before it’s bedtime, make a thorough sweeping of the house and pick up anything that rolls, bounces, or makes noise. Don’t tempt your cats by leaving foams and accessible furniture around.
When they are ready to play, and there are toys and play material all over the house, they are more likely to rejoice and get into work when you want them to be sleeping.
If your cat doesn’t get tempted, it’s a lot more likely to go into boredom and sleep.
#13 Reduce the Light in your Cat Sleeping Area
Most cats are adaptable creatures, and they are experts at adjusting their schedules to get by on less sleep. A very bright light could make your cat think it’s playtime. Switch the light to dim light when you want your cat to go to bed. It also makes it understand that dim light means it’s time to sleep.
#14 Sleep with your Cat once in a while
Sleeping with your cat can give both you and your cat a sense of security and closeness, which might help you sleep better.
Frequent interaction with your cat helps to lower blood pressure as well as your heart rate. It will help you to relax even more.
If you want to sleep with your cat, you can create the perfect nighttime environment for you and a little patience and a few tricks as they may wake you very early to get fed or change their litter box.
Remember to ignore it when it tries to wake you up.
Conclusion
We have outlined a step-by-step guide to brace you to know why some cats find it difficult to sleep at night. Cats love it when you dedicate your attention to them, notice abnormal behaviors quickly, and take actions as soon as possible by consulting your vet.
However, keep to the explained guidelines above if your cat is having difficulties sleeping; if this persists, call your vet.