How much sleep do you get?

I was in a great routine until my cat had to be put down and I adopted a new one. Now my sleep is all over the place, my cat keeps me up at night meowing non stop for can cat food and cuddling with me. It's so adorable but..I am tired throughout the day. I'm probably getting 5-6 hours of restless sleep verses my normal 8 hours restful sleep. I think my exercise routine has been lacking my motivation as well. Does anyone nap? I thought about taking a required daily nap, but that doesn't work with my weekday schedule. Guess I'm going to have to put my foot down and tell my cat NO.

I barely sleep three hours at at time these days and that's with taking sleep medications. I have a bad habit of waking up and then trying to watch TV to fall back asleep. I couldn't nap during the day if I tried...unless I am at the beach!

That's not much sleep. I sure would be grumpy 24/7 if I were you. Thanks for responding.

I'm the same way. I can't sleep, even if I take any kind of sleep substances. I' sometimes go days without any sleep. I've been this was since I was a kid. It's becoming to be worse as I get older. Nothing helps it and it's a miserable feeling. Especially, watching everyone around me sleeping good.

I seldom get a decent nights sleep anymore, maybe a few hours at a time. I often feel a need to nap during the day and it's a huge help if I can get even 20 nap minutes.

They say you can't catch up on sleep but occasionally I do by sleeping 12 hours on a weekend. It makes the world of difference

Wow 12 hours on the weekend, that would be nice but I have 2 teens that wouldn't let me sleep. A 20 minute nap doesn't seem like much. Thanks for responding.

Typically, 4 to 6 hours. I think it's less important how much sleep I get vs when I get that sleep. If it's 10 to 2, great...if it's midnight to 4, not so great. I typically wake up at the same time every day, without an alarm clock, so this seems to be the right sleep approach for me -- everyone is different though.

There's been some interesting research into REM sleep, into changes in sleep pattens as we moved to more modern times. I've read that the 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is just something made up and historically people would sleep for shorter periods of time, sleep for a few hours, then do things for a few hours, then sleep again. That makes sense if you think about agrarian households and the need for things like keeping a fire going overnight, etc.

If I feel like I'm tired because I'm not getting enough sleep, I'll use an sleep timer website to determine when I should go to bed so that I wake up at the right spot in the REM cycle, which can be useful. (I'll use the most when I'm trying to pre-shift my sleep cycle if I'm going to have a big timezone change). I'd also lock the cat in another room (if I had a cat that was disturbing my sleep that much (I do not have a cat)).

Good luck!

Some things you might try:

Don't feed the cat right when you wake up. Wait a half hour. You want to break the association in the cat's mind between you waking up and the cat getting food.

When the cat wants attention at night, pull it close and wrap your arms around it. You can do this without really waking up. The cat probably wants to play, not to be held closely like this, so they will learn that bothering you at night doesn't get the desired result. But also, you're not rejecting your cat, so you can go back to sleep without feeling guilty.

All of this behaviour will probably settle down over time as your cat feels more confident in their new home.

about six hours. I also have a cat who wakes me up at ungodly hours. But even when I'm away from home (i.e., no cat around), I still only get about six hours of sleep. It's a rare night when I clock in 7+.

I've been sleeping rather crappy for a long while now. I've got pretty intense back issues so that plays a huge part. My biggest block of sleep tends to be an hour to an hour and a half. I get usually two of those and some shorter periods. I have a Fitbit that tracks. All together I get around 6...being so chopped up I never feel rested. Lately I've been getting less than 6 total.

I do nap every once in a while. It's usually just for 30 minutes or less.

I hope your kitty gets more settled in and doesn't wake you up!