Sleeping With Cats - Is It Keeping You Awake

Sleeping with cats can be both lovely and frustrating at the time. For instance do you find:

• You get a bad nights sleep?
• You get disturbed in the night by there constant moving?
  
• You are awoken early in the morning with a sometimes not so gentle thwack to the face?
  

Shelley and Byron on the bed. Those are my legs trapped in the middle.

If you can relate to any of these, then I can commiserate with you. Below is my story of sleeping with cats and also how we managed to find a solution to getting a good night sleep but still having our (heavy) bundles of joy with us each night.

Sleeping With Cats Our Story And Solution

I've always had cats in my life but I haven't always had a cat sleeping on the bed with me. This all changed when I moved in with my partner about twenty years ago.

Many of you who follow the site know that it is dedicated to mine and Matt's first cat together, Little Mo. She was a slim fairly small female cat, who naturally loved her dad so much that she couldn't bear to be apart from him at night. She happily snuggled down between his feet every night. This was fine by me, and I hardly noticed her presence.

BUT, fast forward 20 years and we now have three large male cats, two of which have decided that the bed is for everyone, especially them. Most nights we have Shelley on the bed, a great big wobbly sprawl of a cat, who weighs A LOT. Some nights we also have his brother Byron curled up next to him too.

Now, when they were smaller I didn't mind at all, especially as they favoured Matt's, side of the bed and he seemed to not mind kitties sleeping both between his legs and at his side all night. He even didn't seem to mind the 4am punch in the face, when they decided it was breakfast time.

HOWEVER things have changed. Our cats are now large, heavy, bed hogging creatures who take over most of the bed. Forcing us to sleep either crunched up, or sleeping diagonally across the bed. On nights like these we rarely sleep well.

Now many of you will say, "just keep them out at night". Well there are two reasons I cannot do this. Firstly, they have been allowed to sleep on the bed all their lives and I think it rather unfair to banish them now. Secondly, they wouldn't understand and would simply pull at the carpet, scrape at the door and caterwaul all night until I let them in. I know this as I have tried before (you see the state of my carpet).

So What Is The Solution For Getting A Good Night Sleep With A Cat On Your Bed?

I will tell you what we have done. We have bought a comfy cat doughnut bed which we have placed on our bed and which Shelley (the biggest and heaviest cat) absolutely loves. Every night as we settle down to sleep he climbs in and we can manoeuvre his bed in the middle or at our feet. You see it contains him and gives us the ability to move around as we please. It really has been a god send.

As for Byron, well when he does get on the bed, he sleeps right at the bottom, which we can work with.

But what about you? Do you have the same problem and if so what was your solution for sleeping with cats. Perhaps your tips will help others get a good night sleep too. Use the form here to let us know your thoughts on having a cat sleep on the bed. Is it a good or bad thing?