Night time waking tips?

[buffyslayer]

I'm at a loss! For the cat not me

I have a great combination of insomnia and constant fatigue from medical issues so sleep is really precious

Cat used to sleep through and not wake me but his wake up time is getting earlier and earlier. He will wake me by chewing wires if ignored

He tried to chew this morning while I was stroking him so it wasn't for attention! He has a timed feeder for wet and dry food set for 4.30am for wet and 5.30am for his dry - then he will usually sleep again
He doesn't want to go out - I don't have a cat flap but he isn't fussed about outside

If I shut him in the living room/kitchen (open plan) he will dig up the carpet until it's ruined, if I ignore him and try and sleep again then he will chew wires or rattle stuff constantly

Help?! I can't keep getting to sleep at 3am and being woken at 4am, I'm so tired

Chewing wires is often boredom related. Try establishing a 15 minutes play time with him, toys he can chase and catch, before you go to bed and feed him after it. If you can get a catit circuit toy he can play with during the night and puzzle toys with treats. Set your timed food later in the morning and leave dry food open to allow for grazing if you're not trying to get him to lose weight. Might take a little while to establish new routines and get used to circuit toy noises during the night but it definitely helped with mine. Cat nip after playtime can help too, they tend to doze a lot after a good nip 😹

I'll give it a go
He had food around midnight as well
No grazing as he's prone to weight gain
Photo for tax

Not sure about the wire chewing boredom - I should have mentioned he eats plastic too like it's the tastiest thing in the world and I think the wires feel the same?

My partner was fed up of our cat waking him up at night (the cat doesn't bother me at all) so when the cat was dozing during the day he gently tapped him awake and said "you don't like that either". The cat's face said it all but quickly forgave him because he had a treat.

We usually shut him in downstairs during the night. He doesn't get up to mischief as there is no evidence the next morning, unless he tidies up after himself.

No solutions, just solidarity!! Our cat wakes up extra early in the summer and uses a combination of walking across my face, paws tapping on mouth/ eyes, carpet scratching, lickinh OHs veard& harir, drawer handle rattling, meowing, knocking stuff off the bedside table to make sure we know he thinks we should be awake too!! His sister is far more chill and just glares at him and goes back to sleep!

A big meal just before bedtime and making upstairs as dark as possible/ shutting windows so can't hear the birdsong gives us a little bit more sleep but far from solves the problem... it's a good job he's bloody gorgeous 😍 🤣 (Cat not OH!)

I went back to sleep about 6am and the little brat had the audacity to glare at me when I woke him up

Hopefully I'll sleep earlier tonight