Oh my god why will my cat not stop meowing/how do I get him to stop before I go crazy?

he does this some mornings. he has food, he has water, he has two litter boxes to use, i dont understand what he could possibly want. i think he wants to go outside, but he is not an outside cat. he has no front claws or teeth and he’ll run away. we got him a harness but he is impossible to walk and if i tie him up and let him lay outside, he slips out of the harness and bugs the neighbors. anyhow, he always does this in the morning and it is disrupting my sleep patterns. i don’t know how to get the point across to him that he really needs to be quiet. pLEASE HELP!?!?!?!/!?!

ps: he gets buttloads of love. and he kept both of us up last night laying on our faces, licking our hair, stealing our pillows…i think maybe he just wants petted more, but i need to sleep more before i can be enthusiastic about petting him. if this is the issue, how do i teach him that i cannot pet him 24/7 and get him to stop meowing when its one of those times?