# In the days before alarm clocks, how did people wake up?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 1, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916 "2008-02-01T23:09:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/1 "2008-02-01T23:09:36Z")
I’ve been thinking about this during the last couple of days, and I feel like there must be an obvious answer. There have always been jobs that require one to be at a certain place at a certain time, laborer positions, shop assistants, etc. Wikipedia says that the first patented mechanical alarm clock came about in 1847. However, this wouldn’t immediately be accessible to everyone.
All I can think of is that there was some long-obsolete profession of “professional wakers”, maybe people who intentionally put themselves on a nocturnal schedule and charge a fee for going about the city and waking people up at a certain time? Was there a town crier who walked the streets at 6am and rang a bell? Did church bells wake people?
Being one rather dependent on an alarm clock myself (I’ve never been able to “naturally” wake up at the same time every day), I’m rather curious. Anyone know how this used to work?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/2 "2008-02-01T23:29:50Z")
Roosters?
(of course, the ones in our neighborhood crow at 4am).
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/3 "2008-02-01T23:36:32Z")
They used to go to sleep when it got dark, and were rested enough to awaken naturally without the intrusion of the alarm clock.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/4 "2008-02-01T23:37:24Z")
Farmers might be waked by roosters or by cows lowing to be milked (cows are EXTREMELY loud).
Laborer might have factory whistles within hearing – either working close by the factory in worker’s housing or living in “Company towns” where they were supervised (Hershey, PA, Lowell, MA, etc).
Church bells also did the trick.
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/5 "2008-02-01T23:39:53Z")
The sun generally works well.
I only have a couple of times a year when my alarm wakes me. Normally I wake before it goes off. Why? I don’t know.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/6 "2008-02-01T23:41:04Z")
I don’t know the answer, but I’ll just point out that the Wikipedia link says that the first alarm clock was invented in 1787, which is smack in the middle of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and the first patent was, as you say, from 1847, which is pretty much the time of the later stages of the Industrial Revolution, what some call the “Second” Industrial Revolution. I guess that before that, getting up and going to work on time wasn’t an issue for a lot of people in the same way as today. I dunno.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/7 "2008-02-01T23:47:37Z")
People, naturally sleeping when it gets dark, will naturally wake up when the sun comes up.
In 1700, people didn’t stay up until 1am watching David Letterman. They went to bed around 8pm. I’m sure that if we all went to bed at 8pm, after a day of hard work, we could wake up very refreshed at 6am without prodding.
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### Author:  [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/8 "2008-02-02T00:06:50Z")
Although I have an alarm clock I don’t find I really need it. I wake up at the same time on the weekend without it.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/9 "2008-02-02T00:08:51Z")
Also, before the invention of clocks, people had a different concept of time. Nowadays, if you’re not where you’re supposed to be after five minutes, you’re “late”. But I’m sure there was much more leeway back in the day.
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### Author:  [@nofloyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nofloyd)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/10 "2008-02-02T00:11:44Z")
Preface: I dislike alarm clocks. They alarm me too much - I don’t appreciate my heart racing at that hour.
One technique I use if I need to be up significantly earlier than my set point is to drink a glass of water before bed. Bladder pressure will rouse me 2 hours earlier.
If it’s under an hour I just tell myself right before bed “You have to be up at 5:30.” It works for me. I also never see Letterman. I’m in bed 9:30 - 10:00.
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### Author:  [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/11 "2008-02-02T00:20:41Z")
For most people, if you keep a regular sleep-wake schedule, your circadian rhythm is enough to wake you up at about the same time (+/- ~15 minutes) every day.
JRB
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### Author:  [@TROY\_TEMPEST](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TROY_TEMPEST)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/12 "2008-02-02T00:25:27Z")
Hi. New guy here. Both(older)sides of my family always woke up at @ 05:00 AM. They lived on farms and had to get up for chores and whatnot. I think it just became habit. A habit I wish I could shed. I don’t need an alarm clock. It is a true curse.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/13 "2008-02-02T00:36:53Z")
[QUOTE=nofloyd]
Preface: I dislike alarm clocks. They alarm me too much - I don’t appreciate my heart racing at that hour.
[/QUOTE]
Me, too. I hate alarm clocks and never use them. Fortunately, I’m a very light sleeper, and rarely sleep very long without waking up. I also have this weird ability to wake up and guess the time within 5 or 10 minutes.
The other thing to keep in mind, as \*\*monstro \*\*noted, it’s only recently in history that “being on time” was an issue. In small villages, a person could rely on church bells to be rung at key times during the day.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/14 "2008-02-02T01:37:55Z")
[QUOTE=NightRabbit]
All I can think of is that there was some long-obsolete profession of “professional wakers”, maybe people who intentionally put themselves on a nocturnal schedule and charge a fee for going about the city and waking people up at a certain time?
[/QUOTE]
Very astute.
No less an authority than Wikipedia describes the duties of a [knocker-up](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker-up), like so:
> [@](#):
>
> A knocker-up would wake up very early (sometimes as early as 3:00 am) to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. Usually, the knocker-up was male and most often used a long and light stick (often bamboo), with pieces of wire attached at the end - to reach windows on higher floors and wake their clients at whetever time their clients requested. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week for this job. The knocker-up would not leave a client’s window until they were assured the client had been awoken. Knocker-ups usually worked in larger cities like London or Liverpool…Some knocker-ups worked freelance; their clients would either post the time they wished to be woken next to their doors, in their windows, or verbally, in advance. Some knocker-ups were employed by mills or larger factories to wake their large workforce on time.
In addition to the long stick, a pea shooter was another favoured means of rousing folks from their slumbers.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/15 "2008-02-02T01:39:33Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain]
In 1700, people didn’t stay up until 1am watching David Letterman. They went to bed around 8pm. I’m sure that if we all went to bed at 8pm, after a day of hard work, we could wake up very refreshed at 6am without prodding.
[/QUOTE]
Is this true? Not the Letterman part…that I can believe. But is it true that people 300+ years ago used to go to bed at 8 pm? I’m not attempting to doubt your knowlesge, **jtgain** , but that just sounds strikingly early to my 21st century sensibilities.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/16 "2008-02-02T01:41:45Z")
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara]
A knocker-up would wake up very early (sometimes as early as 3:00 am)
[/QUOTE]
But … _who woke up the knocker-up_?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/17 "2008-02-02T02:22:28Z")
[QUOTE=Atomicktom]
Is this true? Not the Letterman part…that I can believe. But is it true that people 300+ years ago used to go to bed at 8 pm? I’m not attempting to doubt your knowlesge, **jtgain** , but that just sounds strikingly early to my 21st century sensibilities.
[/QUOTE]
Think about it. The only artificial illumination was candles, oil lamps and a fireplace. There were no streetlights, so when it got dark, it got REALLY dark. You couldn’t see well enough to do anything, so why not go to bed?
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/18 "2008-02-02T02:30:48Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou]
Think about it. The only artificial illumination was candles, oil lamps and a fireplace. There were no streetlights, so when it got dark, it got REALLY dark. You couldn’t see well enough to do anything, so why not go to bed?
[/QUOTE]
But that would vary by season – a lot. Boston is Northern by U.S. standards but Southern in reference to Canada and a large part of Europe. I gets dark here well past 9 pm in June and about 4 pm in December. That is a huge change and many places are more extreme.
People didn’t go to bed at 5 or 6 pm during certain times of the year and 10 or 11 pm at other times did they? That makes no sense. All Scandinavians would have to be conveniently bipolar according to the calendar to have any chance at all according to such a system.
The explanations given sound OK on the surface but they don’t stand up at all against simple facts and common sense. It is a good question.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/19 "2008-02-02T02:35:34Z")
[QUOTE=Atomicktom]
But is it true that people 300+ years ago used to go to bed at 8 pm?
[/QUOTE]
[segmented sleep (wikipedia)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep)
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-days-before-alarm-clocks-how-did-people-wake-up/435916/20 "2008-02-02T02:41:02Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
But that would vary by season – a lot. Boston is Northern by U.S. standards but Southern in reference to Canada and a large part of Europe. I gets dark here well past 9 pm in June and about 4 pm in December. That is a huge change and many places are more extreme.
[/QUOTE]
My wag would be in areas where winter took too many daylight the night was illuminated by a fireplace inside, which allowed the people to stay up a bit past sundown
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