Before alarm clocks, how did people know when to wake up?

Answer 1

In the north of England, from the Industrial Revolution onwards, there were men employed in each town to go around early in the morning and tap on people's bedroom windows with a long willow wand. Think these men were called 'tappers' or some such.

This was the way in which people were woken up in time for work in the morning, before the age of the cheap alarm clock.

Also, in some factory towns, the factory hooters would sound half an hour before morning start of work. This gave folk half an hour to get up and get out to work.

Re: Knockers The awaken usage used to be widespread enough in the UK for us to have 'knockers up' - a profession devoted to the task of tapping on the bedroom windows of ...
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/377.html


Edit: hasicit above has the right answer - Knockers Up.

Answer 2

Body clock.
I watched an item on TV the other day about this subject.
A guy was placed in isolation with no clock, TV, radio, newspapers etc. & observed for a few days to see when he slept, how often etc.
By the end of the experiment he was sleeping 8 hours & waking naturally & eating at regular intervals throughout the day. The conclusion was that our bodies work on a 24 hour cycle, whether or not we have knowledge of time passing. Amazing, huh?

Answer 3

I wake up when the sunlight comes,
if the sun get up early, this is how my waking up occurs.
I don't use alarm clocks.
if the body acts like a clock it will tell when to wake up

Answer 4

I set an alarm clock, but I usually wake up about 15 minutes before it goes, no matter what time it is set for.

Answer 5

Before, there were no "9 - 5" jobs; no commuters to catch, etc. For the most part, people got up when the sun came up; they went to bed when the sun went down. The rich, the gamblers, etc., tried to stay up longer by burning candles, then kerosene lamps, etc. Farm people got up when the rooster crowed.
This is the way it was when I was a kid. School started at 10 minutes to 9, so there was plenty of time to wake up, do the chores, etc., and be off to school.

Answer 6

Generally, people woke up whenever they wanted to. That being said, however, animals can get very noisy when they're not fed or not milked. It wasn't until the industrial revolution of the 1840's on that working in shifts was the norm. Prior to that, people worked on a contract basis or they farmed. If one is a contractor, one can work whenever one wants. Farmers are tied to the rhythms of the seasons and the animals they raise.

Try not milking a cow for a day. They will let you know that they're unhappy.

Answer 7

their kids got them up far too early, and as a primitive kind of snooze alarm the kids then sent the dog in to lick their faces exactly 4 minutes after. i'm not saying this happened to me, but it sure works. yaaawn

Answer 8

Indians drank a lot of water before they went to bed to ensure they woke up early.

Answer 9

That bliss between sleeping and waking is a good thing. Our modern society had done away with it... except on Saturday. Time to bring it back.

Answer 10

eternal clocks?
they were so used to waking up at one time..
they just kept up the tradition!