The Evolution of Waking Up: From Nature’s Clock to Modern Alarms

Watan–“Timekeeping” technology has come a long way since the ancient Egyptian sundials, along with our ability to wake up at any specific time we need for work, school, or appointments—even if we often ignore the alarm in favor of just 10 more minutes of snoozing.

Ironically, people have long had various reasons to stick to a strict schedule, and sometimes they relied on a rooster’s crow or birds chirping at dawn to ensure they were awake to face the day.

Before the invention of alarms, the primary way people woke up was “purely biological.” Long before mechanical clocks or artificial light, people lived in harmony with the natural rhythms of day and night.

Two biological processes determine our natural sleep-wake cycle: “homeostasis and circadian rhythms.” Homeostasis governs our body’s drive for sleep, which increases the longer we stay awake and dissipates once we sleep, signaling when it’s time to wake up.

Meanwhile, circadian rhythms control wakefulness and sleepiness throughout the day, influenced by light (which increases alertness) and darkness (which signals sleep).

However, this isn’t the only internal process that served as a wake-up call before the advent of alarms. Some people relied on their bladders. In Stanley Vestal’s 1984 biography of Lakota warrior White Bull, he noted that “Indian warriors were able to determine their wake-up time in advance by regulating the amount of water they drank before going to bed.”

Naturally, these bodily functions remain as natural wake-up calls, but circadian rhythms are often disrupted by modern light sources, such as screens. Given the strict nature of 21st-century work schedules, the bladder may not be the most reliable alarm anymore.