I've posted about this before. So I apologize for the redux. But the
problem hasn't been solved. Basically here's the scoop. We have 4 cats.  
Two cats hang out through the night and are happy to see us in the morning
(both for food an attention). The other two cats (a brother and sister,
strangely) scratch on the door of our bedroom every single night. Period.  
It wakes us up, disrupts our sleep. It's like I would imagine having
crying children to be (if I had them, of course) except they're not
outgrowing a phase. The other part that's important is that I have sleep
apnea, GERD, and a little insomnia. So I REALLY REALLY need quality sleep
and needless to say these conditions make it difficult. I generally follow
all the standard good sleep habits. No TV in the bedroom.  No food two
hours before bed. Etc., etc. It helps me to relax and get better sleep in
spite of these health roadblocks. Now we just can't keep these cats from
scratching at the door at 2, 3, 4 in the morning.

We tried initially letting them sleep with us, on the advice of others in
this newsgroup. That worked in that the scratching quit instantly. And the
cats actually seemed more to want access to us than to actually be in the
room. However, the boy of the pair started playfully nibbling on my
should, feet, whatever was exposed. In addition to being all too
fascinated with my breathing aparatus for my sleep apnea. As a consequence
while my wife's sleep got better my sleep went to hell in a handbasket.  
Got even worse. We tried it for a while, it was destroying my sleep. So on
the advice of others we got a water bottle and squirted him when he did
this. But he never ever ever ever stopped. So my sleep kept getting
destoryed. So we went to plan B, something someone else suggested, which
was to get some kind of "kitty jail", a room or a large kennel or
somewhere we could put them whe they scratched, in the hope that they'd
learn to stop scratching.  So we bought a giant, airy, comfortable soft
dog kennel which sits in our living room. Strangely they LOVE sleeping on
the top during the day so much (it's like a cat hammock, sometimes 3 of
them will be up there) that they've all but abandoned the house we bought
for them a long time ago.

Sadly, though, the cats aren't learning lessons of any sort. Every night
they scratch. Every night my wife or I have to put them in kitty jail.
Without fail. Every night. I'm reaching a breaking point with this problem
and I don't know what to do. My sleep is absolutely miserable and the cats
whether with the spray bottle or with the kitty jail don't seem to be
learning anything. It's been months and we're still at step A. I can't go
on like this. The only thing I can think of is to put them in the kitty
jail pre-emptively. Like when we go to bed. I haven't wanted to do that,
because that seems cruel, but I don't know what else to do. I'm at wit's
end. Please help me.

Any advice (aside from getting rid of the cats - not an option) is
appreciated.

Sincerely,

Preston