How Did People Wake Up Before Alarm Clocks?

Before alarm clocks, how did anyone wake up on time? From roosters and church bells to incense clocks, candle clocks with nails, a whistling water clock and the knocker-uppers who tapped on windows with long poles, here's how people got out of bed for thousands of years. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:18 Waking with the sun 0:35 The rooster 0:50 First sleep 1:07 Second sleep 1:21 The bladder alarm 1:37 Plato's water alarm 1:58 Chinese incense clocks 2:18 Candle clocks 2:37 Church bells 2:54 The knocker-upper 3:14 The pea shooter 3:28 Who woke the knocker-upper? 3:41 The first alarm clocks 4:06 Today 📚 Further reading • A. Roger Ekirch, "At Day's Close: Night in Times Past" (segmented sleep) • Knocker-uppers of Britain and Ireland (Industrial Revolution) • Incense clocks of China • Levi Hutchins (1787) and Seth E. Thomas (1876) alarm clocks Illustrations, animation and music are original. Narration voice is AI-generated. #history #historyexplained #lifebeforenow