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Sleep habits for kitten?

18823 Views 12 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Milky's Mammy
I have a 12 week old kitten and I tried allowing her in my bedroom when I go to sleep but she is not sleepy at the times I go to sleep and she ends up running amok on the bed and jumping on everything, forcing me to put her out of the room and shut the door.

I know many people sleep nights with their cats next to them, is this just typical for kittens? Do older cats sleep through the night with their owners?

I would really love if she would sleep near me at night instead of roaming alone through the house at night.
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Kittens do not stay still for the most part. They are little bundles of energy. Most do outgrow the 'crazies' and settle down as they get older. Some cats don't. I have 4 cats. 3 of them would make nice sleep companions if they could all stand to be in the same room together without fights. I end up sleeping with 1 consistently, and lock the others out. However, Sasha, my youngest, he's about 14 months old, I can't even think to sleep with. He still can't lay still for very long.
she will mellow as she matures, you can try some very active play (run her silly) followed by her evening meal just before bed.. but the kitten pattern is play eat nap, repeat around the clock..
You've also got to keep in mind that most cats are active during the hours of sunset to sunrise. This is a natural cycle, and best time for "hunting". So even an indoor cat wants to be active hunting its mousies or toys then too. Cats can eventually adapt to our cycle of activity during the day and sleeping at night. A lot depends on the background of the cats too. Altho I've heard it said that cats sleep an average of 18hrs./day, that doesn't apply to my Devons or most active breeds like Siamese, Abyssinians. My Devons are awake most of the time I'm awake tho they have mellowed somewhat in their activities and aren't quite as wild chasing each other around as they used to be. But then they are 7 y. o. now, and when I take a nap, they will nap with me too.
we keep mainly the quiet cat toys in the bedroom. track balls and things with bells or rattles are in other places in the house!!!
I've never had a kitten, but I'll add that whatever ends up happening when they get older, it'll change. Murphy will sleep with me every night for 2 weeks, then not again for 2 months. They're streaky with sleeping, just like everything else!
A play session and a meal before bedtime will get you a sleepy kitten....for a couple hours. After that it's "game on". They do settle into our routines after a while. I have to say I've been very lucky with the last two kittens...both adopted my routine from almost day 1. With Holly, I put a bed in the cubby of my bookcase headboard and plopped her in there...she'd stay all night. Now Maggie was a completely different story...good thing I sleep like a rock.
I believe that each kitten/cat plays by it's own set of rules. My second most recent cat (now 19 months old) liked to play all night. He did fine by himself for the most part, but around two or three in the morning he would get bored and start being vocal. He finally learned to settle in during this time, but even now if the alarm clock goes off he knows that he has full permission to do as he pleases in the bedroom.

Comparatively, I right now have a 14 week old kitten that sleeps right through the night with us. Same breed of cat, from the same breeder, and actually has the same sire as the 19 month old.

Cats will be cats, and never assume one will walk the same path as another. As soon you try to compare them, they'll be different.
When I got Mia (7 weeks old) she wanted to run everywhere while I was trying to sleep. I put her in her create with a couple of towels and her favorite toy and kept her in my room. She wouldnt make a peep all night. After about 3 weeks I let her out and she began sleeping with me. A couple of times in the last year I have done it again for a few days at a time (when she was really wound for awhile). She would then get out and start sleeping with me again.
Book (a little over a year old) plays himself out and then comes to bed. A few times he was really bad I'd whip a pillow in his direction and he'd move the game to the living room... not that I'd recommend that to any other cat since he's not afraid of ANYTHING and it didn't faze him other than to know I was getting ticked and would come after him soon.

When I wake up in the morning he's always with MowMow and I, sleeping on top of or next to me.
I'm a huge fan of night time confinement - either crate training or a safe room - while they are learning times when it is appropriate to sleep vs times it is ok to be insane.
Mine get super hyper at 11:30 to 12am every night. You can almost set a clock by them. They've finally learned it's not okay to play on mommy, she'll shift you right off the bed. Now, most nights, though they don't fall asleep with me, they'll come and lay down in the night. It's almost a more startling waking up to find Sammy's face inches from mine while he politely waits for me to open my eyes than the alarm itself.
Milky has slept through the night before, but recently he's been getting up around 4am everynight and walking all over the bed, waking us up, so we've had to put him in the living room and close the door. On weekends he can do a bit better by sleeping until about 7, then falling back to sleep again until about 9. If I don't plan on getting up that early, I usually still give him breakfast then go back to bed again. There are good days and there are bad days. A meal and an energetic playtime just before bedtime normally sorts things out, but where there's a will there's always a way! ;)
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