Night
You may be asking yourself why your friend can’t sleep at night. Some cats are very active at night or want to go out very early in the morning when you are only trying to hold onto the last hours of sleep left before heading to work. This can turn into frustration, but as you are not home during the day, your cat may be sleeping during the day, which causes them to stay awake at night.
Thus, your pet ‘day’ only starts when you arrive home after work. Some cats, however, have crepuscular behavior, which means that they are more active during the night. They will walk on their owner, be vocal, and have energetic play sessions, which may disturb the owner’s sleeping pattern.
How To Manage Your Cat Night Activity?
Look For Medical Causes
It is important to consult your vet first. Because you want to look at any medical causes of this phenomenon, some issues like pain or thyroid disease may impact their sleep. You can try and shift their behavior. If they are less active during the day and more active during the night, you can reverse the situation.
Nutrition
The feeding time can also impact the sleep schedule. If your cat feels hungry during the night, this can cause a nighttime fuss. You can schedule a meal near bedtime to help ease the situation.
Naturally, you may find your cats hunting for food; it is natural for them to hunt as they have a predatory instinct, and being fed at the same time in the same place may perturb their natural way. Bowl feeding is easier, but it is an uncommon way for cats, so the best will be to hide a small portion of food in different places of the house. This exercise will allow them to have the required physical and mental exercise during the day, which is a great stimulation.
Make sure that you hide the food in places that they are used to roaming, for example, windowsills, bookshelves, and so on. If your cat is used to bowl feeding, it will be quite difficult at first, but their biological behaviors will be fulfilled after a while, and they will be used to it.
If you do not want to proceed with the ‘hunting’ option, you can buy an automatic feeder. Set the feeding when they are more active during the night; however, this is not the best method, and I do not recommend it. The automatic feeder can be dysfunctional, or this will install a bad habit for your cat.
Try to vary their meals. Give them human-grade raw meat. This will keep them busy for quite a long time and keep them satisfied for a moment. Prolonged chewing time may help them to have a good night’s sleep.
Day Activity
As I mentioned earlier, if your cat stays at rest during the day, it is normal to lead to nighttime activity. To diminish or banish nighttime activity, your cat must be active during the day. This can be difficult if you work all day.
You may provide them with different toys that you place in different rooms in the places that your pet is used to. Make sure that they are safe toys as you won’t supervise. They should be big enough so that they cannot swallow them. Buy different toys – shapes and sizes (safe sizes) and ensure that the toys attract them. For example, they may make noise that attracts them and keeps them busy for a while.
Age
Your cat’s age may be a determinant of why they stay awake. Normally, this issue is more towards kittens and younger cats as they have more energy than older cats, so they will soon have a normal sleeping schedule when they grow.
If you have tried everything and it is still a problem, you should contact your vet to know the next step. Your vet may recommend medications and will know what is best for them. Let us know in the comment if night activity is common for your cat…
