There were people who went around knocking on windows of paying customers each morning. At least during the 18th Century and onwards in Britain. Known as "knocker uppers" then, laughedd at by History Undergrads today.

However, on a historical-biological note, there is evidence our current sleep cycle is "unnatural" due to large amounts of artifical light. Some texts from pre-Industrial revolution say that people would sleep at nightfall (or Early night if nightfall was relatively early in that time, ie Winter), wake for an hour naturally around 12 or 1a.m. (not like clockwork but so that sleep was in two halves, "small" and "large" sleeps) and fall back to sleep until dawn.

http://www.history.vt.edu/Ekirch/sleepcommentary.html

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=174668821962616315&hl=en&as_sdt=0,10