I think you may be making the problem worse! One of my cats will give me a
paw rather like a dog to get a treat; and if he really wants a treat when it
hasn't even occurred to me, he will lift a paw and look at me..

I'm worried it might be the latter.

I had a similar problem with Oscar.  She would wake me up by rustling whatever
she could find in the bedroom.  I'd say, "Oscar, no!" in a firm voice.  She'd
jump up on the bed and purr, and I'd pet her for being a "good girl" and
stopping the racket.

Fast forward a bit, and I eventually (it's hard to think clearly when you're
half asleep) realized that she had me trained -- she'd make some noise, wait
for me to wake up, then run up to get her skritches.  *sigh*

Now I'm trying to retrain her by moving her to the basement the first time
she's noisy, and most certainly not petting her for making noise!

The cat brain is so mysterious!  Shortly after I rescued my very first
cat, Pepper, 15 years ago, I picked up and read a book that insisted
that cats could be "trained".

Well, Pep seemed quite clever, so I followed the instructions for a
couple of days, and he actually leaped up onto a chair whenever I said
"Up!"  Naturally, I gave him a treat as a reward.

You know what's coming .... an hour or so later I was working in the
kitchen when I heard loud and insistent mieows. I turned around to see
Pep on his training chair, demanding his reward!

So who had trained whom?  

Marion