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How people woke up before alarm clocks

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260306-the-wake-up-tricks-people-used-before-alarm-clocks
21•tchalla•4d ago

Comments

Frieren•3d ago
> "In many pre-industrial societies, daily life followed the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, which naturally shaped circadian rhythms."

Having an office job that allows for flexible hours, I start my working day at different times during the year. Setting the alarm to the latest hour that I can start to work it never wakes me up, but it is there just in case.

Overall, I feel that I am less stressed, sleep better and have more energy that if I force myself a schedule to wake up. What I have is a schedule to go to sleep, the rest I leave to nature.

> Mary Smith, a much-loved knocker upper in East London

Great picture.

tayo42•1h ago
One of the benefits of remote work is not waking up with an alarm clock. It's been so long I forgot how much that sucked. And the snooze button.
pinkmuffinere•53m ago
> Setting the alarm to the latest hour that I can start to work it never wakes me up

Funny enough, I have the same strategy but the exact opposite experience -- it _almost always_ wakes me up, even when it's set for 11 am. I don't disagree with you though, I just think it's funny how different human experience is. And there are benefits too, it's easy for me to stay up late, and a lot of my best work comes naturally at 1 am. But basically nothing good happens before noon.

seemaze•15m ago
I've had the great privilege of working remote for quite a while. Unless I have an early flight to catch, I don't set an alarm. I tend to wake up within 60 min. of sunrise regardless of the season and fall asleep somewhere around T-8 hrs.

I can't tell you how much I'd dread having to be violently aroused from my slumber on an ongoing basis.

nyxtom•3d ago
Single greatest thing I did to fix my circadian rhythm was get a sunset/sunrise lighting alarm. I have some hue lights and a "Hatch" alarm clock that both do sunrise lighting and some light morning noise that gradually increases lighting early in the morning. Even when its dark outside, my body has accustomed to it so much that I didn't even notice day light savings at all. Best investment for myself and my daughter I've ever done.
Apreche•1h ago
Roosters
Zambyte•29m ago
How did roosters.wake up before alarm clocks?
kirubakaran•15m ago
It's roosters all the way dawn
expedition32•1h ago
People went to bed when the sun went down because candles cost money. The light bulb changed everything.
richev•43m ago
Lighting was the killer app for electricity.
xeromal•43m ago
I find that when I go camping, I get sleepy early around 9pm and I wake at 6 feeling more refreshed than I do at home. Fresh air and birds chirping. It's honestly a dream
ghewgill•42m ago
Electricity costs money too? I don't know how the cost of power compared to the cost of a candle in the beginning of the 20th century though.
somenameforme•4m ago
You can make and light a long-burning torch from the materials found in most any lush yard, let alone the much greater areas of wilds available to people in the past.
LoganDark•1h ago
When I started ADHD medication, I started to be able to wake up on time without an alarm. All I need is a nearby source of the current time and somehow I can just wake up when I plan to.

I do still use alarms sometimes when I don't expect I'll be able to check the time and continue to fully waking up, but mostly I haven't needed them nearly as much as I used to.

asah•55m ago
um, candle with a nail stuck in the side ?

https://www.google.com/search?q=candle+alarm+clock

tkgally•40m ago
“Most Indians did not know how old they were. They measured time in days, moons, and winters, but they had no weeks, hours, or minutes. On the eve of an important event, when they were afraid they might oversleep in the morning—for example, when a war party discovered an enemy camp and wanted to make sure to wake up and attack it at first light—Indians would drink a lot of water before going to bed.” — Ian Frazier, Great Plains (1989), p. 48.
devsda•23m ago
> but they had no weeks, hours, or minutes.

I don't think this is true.

We Indians make a big deal out of beginning and doing important tasks at auspicious times. That wouldn't be possible without some means of measuring time of day even if its not perfect.

triceratops•21m ago
Indigenous Americans. Not East Indians.

Shall I implement it? No

https://gist.github.com/bretonium/291f4388e2de89a43b25c135b44e41f0
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How people woke up before alarm clocks

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260306-the-wake-up-tricks-people-used-before-alarm-clocks
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