Alarm Clock

Alarm Clocks

In 1800s Britain, wealthier families would also employ knocker-uppers — people armed with long sticks they used to tap incessantly on someone's window until they were roused. (Some knocker-uppers even used straws through which they would shoot peas at their clients' windows.) Light-based alarm clocks typically work by raising the intensity of the light they emit shortly before your desired waking time, so as to mimic the effect of a rising sun, giving a more gradual “waking up” process that is more in tune with your sleep cycle.

The first known mechanical alarm clock inventor is Levi Hutchins, an American who in 1787 invented a personal alarm device to wake him at 4 a.m. He didn't even have to be at work early, it was simply his “firm rule” to wake before sunrise. In this page you can discover 20 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for wake-up, like: awaken, rise-and-shine, arise, get up, awake, get-going, get-cracking, waken, arouse, come-alive and null.