Ace sleeps with Fred but if I get up early, he rushes out to the kitchen. I feed him.
His night meal is at 5:30 consistently. He starts pacing like a caged lion at 4:30. Sometimes, Fred tries to play with him or even give him a chew bone but he is relentless. It's weird because he adjusted to daylight savings time better than I did. If we happen to forget, he jumps up on one of us, then down, then up, until we figure it out that he hasn't been fed.
When I had cats, I free fed them and they would wait for wet food. No big hurry and they were picky, each wanting something different.