How did people wake up early for things before alarm clocks?

by smokefrog2

I know this sounds stupid but for things like school, church, and farmers being in the fields early how did people not oversleep before alarm clocks? I know roosters were one way but what about people in cities? Thank you.

mimicofmodes

There's always more to be said, but I answered a similar question before: Before there were alarm clocks; how did people made sure to wake up on time in the mornings, specially in places where maybe not every household had roosters?

You should bear in mind that for most of the time "before there were alarm clocks", the majority of people worked agriculturally and did not need to rise at a particular specific time. People woke up as the sun rose and went about their duties without reference to an hourly schedule. The same goes for domestic servants and craftsmen, for the most part - these were often all living in a "family" sort of situation, under one roof, which would lead to the entire group being roused by each other. You might still need to be awake at a nebulous early time relative to other members of the household, but you were not expected to rise at a specific time. This is all vague, but "pre-industrial" is a vague (and very long) period of time. I would suggest that you ask a new question to the sub about the way that scheduling worked and how time was perceived in a specific period of history. (For instance, ancient Rome, medieval England, etc.)

The idea of all workers coming in at a regimented time dates to the Industrial Revolution, in the nineteenth century. This is the context of the well-known "knocker-upper", a person who would wake up a household at a particular time in the morning: knocker-uppers were active in factory towns, where just about everyone in the working-class district would need to be up and to work at about the same time.

KNOCKER UP, s, one who calls up factory hands in the morning

The very curious avocation of waking the mill hands in the manufacturing towns early in the morning, so that they may be able to get to their work in good time and avoid being fined for being late, is quite a special and recognised business. The knocker up is paid, I believe, about twopence per head per week. He carries a long pole with which he taps at the bedroom windows of his clients.

A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Chester, by Robert Holland, 1886

This is, however, the period when alarm clocks also came into use, so technically the knocker-up does not answer your question.