Understand why the pillow wins
Your pillow is not just soft. It is raised, it holds your scent more strongly than any other spot in the home, it sits beside your face where your cat can monitor the person she is bonded to, and it is warm from your head within minutes. A cat bed placed on a cold floor across the room loses on every one of those measures, so scolding a cat off the pillow while offering a worse alternative rarely works. The task is not to forbid the pillow but to engineer a bed that beats it on height, warmth, scent and closeness, then let your cat discover the upgrade herself.
Set the bed up where she already wants to be
Location does most of the training. Put the bed on the bed itself at first, beside your pillow, or on a wide bedside surface at a similar height, and choose a style with a raised edge she can rest her chin on or burrow against. Transfer scent deliberately: rub a soft cloth gently on her cheeks and wipe it on the bed, and lay a worn item of your clothing under its cushion so the bed smells like the bond she is seeking. A self-warming pad or a blanket warmed briefly before you get in makes the bed, not the pillow, the first warm spot she finds.
Pay her for choosing the bed
Every voluntary step toward the bed earns something in the early weeks. Toss a treat onto it during the evening, feed a small bedtime snack in it, and stroke her there if she enjoys fuss, so the bed collects good experiences rapidly. When she settles on the pillow anyway, lift her calmly onto the bed, reward her once she is there, and repeat without irritation, even the fourth time in a night. The absence of drama matters: being picked up and given attention on the pillow can itself become a rewarding game that keeps the habit alive.
Make the pillow quietly unavailable
While the bed is gaining value, lower the pillow's. During the day, cover your pillow with a throw or store it in a wardrobe so it stops absorbing her scent and being available for naps. At night, some owners sleep with the pillow slightly propped or with a spare pillow placed where the cat usually lands, gently removing the prize spot from the map. Keep the bedroom door routine consistent too, since a cat allowed on the pillow on weekends but moved off on weekdays receives a muddled message and will simply try her luck every night.
Hold the line kindly for a couple of weeks
Expect testing. Cats revisit a beloved spot for many nights after they mostly sleep elsewhere, and one tired surrender at three in the morning can restart the pattern, because intermittent success is the strongest teacher of persistence. If sharing the bed itself is fine and only the pillow is the problem, a wide bed at the foot end is a compromise many cats accept permanently. A sudden change in sleeping place in an older cat, or restlessness paired with appetite or thirst changes, deserves a vet conversation rather than more training. Consistency across the household seals the change, and KinsLe Family Sharing keeps this cat's bedtime routine and chosen settling spot visible to everyone who shares the home, so the rule survives whoever puts her to bed.