Is your cat ruining your sleep? We’ve all been there, trying to sleep when suddenly the cat is plowing through the house on some feline adventure. When your cat is rambunctious at night or pressing you for attention, it can be really difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
Cats are naturally more active at night in the wild, but for your indoor kitty, they can adjust to your schedule and sleep more during the day. If your cat’s late-night shenanigans keep you from sleeping, there are ways to retrain your cat and modify your own behavior so you can get more sleep at night. CBD oil products for cats can help too! We’ll cover what you can do differently and how to use CBD oil for cats to restore the peace in your home at night.
Why Your Cat Is Keeping You Up at Night
There are lots of reasons your cat may be keeping you up at night, from playful behaviors to mealtime requests. It helps to identify exactly why your cat is waking you up and what need they are presenting to you. Addressing that need during the day will help you to get a more peaceful night’s sleep.
Cats can interrupt your sleep in a variety of ways:
- Yowling / meowing
- Scratching or chewing (on the furniture or even on you!)
- “Pitty-patting” or kneading you when you are trying to sleep
- Biting or messing with your hands as they try to get you to pet them
- Running around and “hunting” things at night
- Playing with jingle balls or other noisy toys
- Waking you up and asking for you to feed them
- Other fun nocturnal games like unravelling the entire roll of toilet paper or climbing around in your kitchen cabinets
When your kitty’s late-night behavior is ruining your much-needed, restorative sleep, it’s time to take action and bring the peace back into your home for more restful nights.
Sudden Changes in Behavior Could Warrant a Vet Visit
First and foremost, does it seem like this behavior came out of nowhere? If the behavior you are seeing really does not seem characteristic of your cat, and they do not seem “like themselves,” there could be something internal going on. It is a good idea to take your cat to the vet, or call them to ask, when sudden behavior changes occur.
Rule out any underlying health issues that are affecting your cat’s regular behavior and sleeping habits.
Cats Are Creatures of Habit
Did you forget something? Your cat will remind you. If you forgot something right before you went to bed, you may get a late-night head bump from your kitty to remind you to fill that food bowl, change the litter, or give them some cuddle time.
Your cat will let you know when something isn’t quite right. It’s not to keep you subservient, as many people like to joke, but cats just like their routines. And they like it when you do things for them that make them feel comfortable, fed, and safe. They might even be a little finicky about how this is all done.
It could be there’s a bit of food that fell out of their bowl and your cat will push the bowl around and away from the “mess.” (If your cat is doing this, tidy up their eating area before you go to bed and top off their food to keep them happy.) Or your cat spends half an hour doing what sounds like building sandcastles in the litter pan, when really it’s just too messy in there for their liking and they spend time trying to find a comfortable and clean spot.
Your cat’s disruptions at night could simply mean something is out of whack within their normal daily routine or in their living environment. Before you turn in for the night, do a quick check on their most temperamental spots like their feeding area and litter pan.
Your Cat May Be Feeling Lonely
Does your cat spend a lot of time alone during the day? Their late-night requests for attention may mean that they are lonely and want to spend time with you. Cats do want affection, but while they are alone they spend much of that time relaxing or sleeping. They are well-rested and ready to love on you when you are in the opposite mood: wanting to relax, wind down, and get some sleep. It helps to remember your cat needs your attention sometimes, and you can choose to do that during the day more often.
Your Cat Has Too Much Energy at Night
It’s important to understand your cat’s biological nature – their instinctive drives. Because cats are crepuscular creatures, they are most active at dawn and at dusk. Take advantage of this knowledge by arranging playtimes at dusk and by making sure your cat has plenty of food in their bowl when they are ready to kick off their morning. This will help to avoid those early-morning hungry meows and those late-night rambles through your home.
Your cat is also naturally a hunter and in the wild they would have done this hunting under the cover of night, with a gift for seeing well in the dark. This can make for some late-night activity as they enact this hunting behavior to satisfy that need. Providing regular playtime during the day will help to reduce this behavior at night.
How to Avoid or Deter Nocturnal Interruptions
How you respond to your cat’s late-night behaviors will set the tone and either encourage or discourage their behavior. Cats will continue to do what works for them and gets them what they want. Conversely, they will lose interest if it is not working for them. If you can modify your own behavior, you can gently move your kitty back into the routine of the home.
Ignore Attempts to Get Affection
Make sure your cat gets the loving attention they need during the day. If your cat comes to you for affection at night, simply ignore them. Remember, for a cat, even if you are actively pushing them away, this is still a physical touch they may interpret as attention. Instead, pull the covers up over your head, roll over away from them, or hide your hands beneath the covers. They will eventually learn that this is no fun and will be less likely to ask for attention when they see you snugly in your bed. They may settle for curling up next to you and sleeping, which may be a win-win if you enjoy the warm purring next to you when you sleep.
Close the Door to Kitty at Night
For some people, simply closing their bedroom door at night solves the issue. If you are a particularly light sleeper, any movements or sounds your cat is making could disrupt your sleep. It’s OK to put your kitty out of your room at night so you can get your best sleep. Put a towel underneath the door to help curb little paws from reaching underneath and scratching the door at night.
Reinforce and Cat-Proof Problem Areas
If your kitty is banging the cabinet doors at night looking for interesting places to hide and explore, some child-proof latches on the doors may solve your issue. If the cat makes a ruckus in the bathroom at night, close the door before you go to bed.
Take up any toys that are especially noisy so your cat won’t decide to go on a jingly-toy hunting spree in the middle of the night. Remove any excess packing materials and boxes you have lying around too, as cats love bouncing on them and rummaging through them. You can also move the cat tree, toys, and scratching posts to a quieter area of your home so you won’t hear the cat at night when they play.
Provide Supportive Care
Supportive care involves regular veterinary trips to keep your cat healthy, flea medications so your cat isn’t up all night scratching at fleas, a healthy diet, and plenty of daytime exercise. Providing daily servings of CBD for cats benefits them as well.
When giving your cat something like catnip that makes them especially playful, be sure to do this well before bedtime so your cat won’t disrupt your sleep with their playful spirit.
Solve Feeding Issues that Keep Your Cat (And You) Up at Night
Cats are very particular about their food and water sources. They’ll eat a hole out of the center of their food, and once they spy the shine of the bowl peeking through their food – they come begging you to fill their bowl, as if there’s not one scrap of food left! For cats that do this, they may reach their stress point in the middle of the night. For these cats, make sure they have enough food to get through the night or use an automatic feeder that spits out a little food at timed intervals.
Your cat may also be one who prefers running or fresh, cool water. An automatic waterer could help, but what if they bound up onto the cabinet and paw at the faucet during the night? Replace their boring water bowl with a kitty water fountain. The soothing trickle of water is nice to have in your home, but it also gives your cat fresh, filtered water around the clock.
Using CBD Oil for Your Cats
CBD oil products for cats are designed with their unique physiology in mind to provide supportive care for their feline bodies. If your cat is wreaking havoc at night, it may be helpful to incorporate CBD oil for cats into their daily routine. When a cat feels their best, it can improve many aspects of their behavior in your home.
CBD Oil for Cats: Overview
Many people know about CBD oil products for humans and even for dogs, but did you know your cat could get the same benefits? Thankfully there are CBD products made just for cats!
Like humans and dogs, your cat’s body has an endocannabinoid system (or ECS) that processes cannabinoids like CBD. You can provide an extra measure of supportive care for your feline friends and help to support their daily wellness, and it’s as easy as squeezing a few drops on their food or tossing them a treat.
CBD Oil for Cats as Part of a Daily Routine
CBD oil for cats works much like it does for dogs and for humans: daily, regular amounts at regular times is best. This allows a balanced level of the CBD oil and is more consistent for your pet. Imagine you moved your morning coffee time to right before bed. How would that work out for you? What we put into our bodies (and when) matters to how we feel, and how our bodies perform, and the same goes for our cats.
Create a daily routine with your cat’s CBD oil products that works the best for your cat. This will set the mood for more even-tempered nights for you and your kitty.
It is important to note that CBD products for cats are not recommended for kittens (cats under one year of age). Most of the CBD for pets research has focused on dogs and cats over a year old. Until there’s enough research and supportive evidence that directly correlates to kittens, it is best to keep the CBD products for cats over one year old.
Choosing the Right CBD Oil Products for Your Cat
There are a few options available to help you get CBD oil into your cat, so don’t panic. Knowing how cats operate, and their often peculiar eating preferences, we’ve formulated easy ways to give your cat their daily servings of feline CBD. There are two options which can be used together or separately as part of your cat’s daily CBD routine.
- CBD Soft Chews for Cats: These CBD cat treats are made with quality hemp extracts from plants grown in the USA, other nutritious ingredients, and yummy flavors cats love (like chicken and catnip!). It’s super easy to toss your cat their treat(s) for their daily servings of CBD. Want to make it more fun? Toss them so your cat has to “hunt” for them. Some cats really enjoy games that mimic hunting behaviors. Your cat will have no idea they are getting their daily CBD while they are having so much fun.
- CBD Tinctures for Cats: Tinctures are also made with the same quality CBD for cats, only it is in liquid form. Using the pet-safe dropper, you simply put the drops of CBD onto your cat’s food. For quality hemp oil for cats, you can’t go wrong with cbdMD, a well-known leader in the CBD for pets industry.
Retraining Your Cat to Avoid Nighttime Banter
Contrary to popular belief, you can train a cat to do new things! Sometimes their nighttime behavior gets out of hand over a period of time and can take a little while to redirect. Other times a normally well-behaved cat is suddenly banging the cabinet doors open and shut at night or getting the “zoomies” at 3 AM. When these things start happening, act quickly to redirect with these helpful strategies.
Once you have addressed your cat’s basic daily needs, you’ve done a lot of the work. Your cat will flow better with the routine of the home if they are content. Happy cat equals happy home, right? There are two other crucial things you can do to restore the peace and quiet to your home at night:
Provide Affection During the Day
Some cats are quite affectionate and will come to you all hours of the day and night to be petted. Others are a bit more standoffish, but for most cats, a bit of daily physical attention will satisfy this need. Take a little part of each day to sit with them, pet them, and give them lots of adoring attention. When you take the time during your day for this, your cat will be less inclined to make these requests while you are sleeping.
If your cat still disrupts your sleep, it may mean they are still lonely at night while you are sleeping. Perhaps they would do better with a companion, like another kitty in your home? It’s something to consider if you want your cat to be happy and you want to get some sleep.
Create a Play Routine
During the evening time, we can often get busy with dinner and other household tasks while our cat is staying out of the way. This missed opportunity for your cat to play out their energies could later strike as an impromptu running fest in the night. Cats, like dogs, need a bit of daily exercise to keep them healthy and feeling their best, but also to burn off that energy. In addition, your cat needs mental stimulation in the form of play. During the day, you can give your cat an activity like a toy that has treats inside, or a tassel that hangs from their favorite perch. These small things can help your cat to use up energy during the day while you are off at work or school.
Also, create a time each night just for fun. Wiggle toys for your cat and break out the stick with the string of feathers. Use a laser pointer or roll a ball of paper. Whatever your cat takes interest in and wants to chase, tackle, wrestle, and chew will help to play out those hunting instincts and tire them out. If you do this at night, at least an hour before bed, and get your cat “played-out,” they will sleep more overnight and so can you. Following all the fun, when your cat settles back and begins licking their paws or curling up to rest, toss them a couple of CBD treats for cats. It’s the perfect time to maximize on this move toward restfulness and leisure.
You may find that these playtimes with your cat also help you to destress and let go of the pressures of your day. Cuddling with your kitty after your play sessions can help your body to release oxytocin, a helpful hormone in your body that promotes feelings of calm and well-being. This is the perfect routine for both you and your cat at night for a good night’s sleep for all.
Don’t Worry, Better Nights of Sleep Are Possible
When your cat has taken over your home at night, you can address the issue with these tips, and with the supportive care that CBD for cats offers. Adjust what you are doing during the day, how you respond to your cat at night, and use the evenings wisely. Supportive CBD oil products for cats added in with their meals and well-placed play sessions can go a long way to make your nights a whole lot more restful.