The Human Alarm Clock? ⏰🤷🏻‍♀️ · Night School: Sleep & Dreams

The Human Alarm Clock? ⏰🤷🏻‍♀️

People used to pay a stranger to shoot peas at their bedroom window every morning.

Her name was Mary Smith, and in 1930s East London she walked the streets before dawn firing dried peas at bedroom windows until the person inside got up.

She was a knocker-upper.

Yes, that’s the name 😁

Before alarm clocks were cheap and reliable, British factory workers paid someone to come and wake them. Turn up late to the mill and you were fined. So people paid a stranger to pull them out of sleep on time.

I came across this while reading about the history of sleep and I keep thinking about it.

The job disappeared decades ago. The idea behind it stuck around. Most of us still wake to something outside ourselves deciding when the night is over.

And a lot of the people I work with have gone one step further. The knocker-upper now lives in their head.

"If I'm not asleep by 11, tomorrow's ruined."

"I need my 8 hours or I won't be able to function."

Checking the sleep score before they've opened their eyes properly.

Sleep becomes one more thing to perform well at.

The problem is that sleep doesn't respond to effort. It happens when the body feels safe enough to let go, and pressure tells the nervous system to stay alert.

So you lie there working hard at sleeping while your body keeps watch.

A big part of my work with clients is helping the body learn that the night belongs to it again.

If your nights feel like a shift you keep failing, start with a Sleep Strategy Session.

In one call we look at what's keeping your body on guard at night and map out what would help it let go.

The link and details are here: https://your.restfulsleep.eu/method

3 comments

The Human Alarm Clock? ⏰🤷🏻‍♀️