cats fighting at night

Question
Hi.  I live in a small apartment that is basically all open; the only doors are to the bathroom and the main exit.  I have two cats, male and female, who I have had for about 4 years.  They get along fine during the day and occasionally even snuggle.  I have a big bed and at night they both sleep at the foot of it.  Lately however, they wake me up every night in the middle of the night, at least once and sometimes more, because they are fighting.   Not yowling, hurting each other type fighting, but just batting at each other and rolling around fighting, 'you are on my nerves' type fighting.  This wakes me up every night because they are doing this on the bottom of my bed.  They have food to eat, and other beds that they could go to if they wanted to.  If I try closing one in the bathroom, they just paw at the door and meow until I let them out.  I don't know what to do! I'm so tired all the time! I'm guessing this is what being a new mother is like, having to keep getting up during the night, but I don't have a baby all I have are fighting cats!  Help!

Answer
Hi Darcy.  I feel your pain - I used to live in a studio apartment, too.  The training period is always extremely difficult, and you will spend a lot of sleepless nights when one is in the bathroom banging on the door to get out, until they are trained.  The more times you give in, however, the harder it will become to train them.  So it might be a better idea to buy some ear plugs (they really do work!), and get tough.  Or, do you suppose the two might make less noise if you locked them in there together?  That might be a horrible idea...they could wreak havoc in there as a pair.  Or, they may pacify one another.  I might be worth a shot.

To try to get them to sleep through the night, see if you can set up a routine for them that would be conducive to several solid hours of rest.  This means that just before bed, you should have a good 15-30 minutes of interactive play with them.  You can use feather wands, ribbons, laser pointers, and if you don't have the time to commit on some nights, there is even a new laser toy that you can set up to work on its own, called the FroliCat BOLT.  Consider giving the kitties a pinch of catnip during their before-bed playtime, which, after its initial frenzy, promotes sleepiness.  Once playtime is finished, give them each a full meal, and then head to bed.  The cats should quietly groom themselves, and then settle into bed.  Most times, cats will begin to sleep the whole night through when you used this routine regularly.  It simulates their natural pattern to hunt, eat, groom and then sleep.

I hope that helps you get some sleep!

Jessica