So sleepy!

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

He set his clock to wake him up at four?

According to the Hobbit, there was clocks in Middle-earth, or at least Bilbo had one.

An early prototype of an alarm clock was invented by the Greeks around 250 BC.

Maybe Merry had bought one in case he didn't trust the local rooster.

[Mithalwen]

Although so sleepy describes me at the moment, ( I think I am turning into a koala bear) and I have been known to sleep through hurricanes. I am seldom woken by the alarm even if it is set for an unusual time. Generally I wake five minutes before the alarm is set. I think we have an internal clock that we just no longer bother to tune into and use. It is easier if the time you wish to wake at coincides with the lightest phase of sleep (the last minutes of the 90 minute sleep cycle). It is the getting up rather than the waking up that is hard -- if I have to catch a plane or something I put the (external ) alarm on the other side of the room!

People have instinctive skills that we no longer use becasue we have technology. For example most men can tell which way North is without thinking - a relic of hunter gatherer days...

[Lalwendë]

Merry possibly just knew it was time to get up. My grandfather never used an alarm clock and always got up at 5.30am; I used to have the same ability when I was a kid but nowadays it takes a clock radio with the volume set to an ear-splitting level to get me out of bed which may be due in no small way to having to go to work instead of lovely school. But I do not have a watch and tend to know roughly what time it is without looking at a clock.

But, how did they know it was 4am if it was dark and they didn't have a clock anyway? How would anyone know the time in the middle of the night in Middle-earth unless there was someone posted to the job of counting it?

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Merry possibly just knew it was time to get up. My grandfather never used an alarm clock and always got up at 5.30am; I used to have the same ability when I was a kid but nowadays it takes a clock radio with the volume set to an ear-splitting level to get me out of bed which may be due in no small way to having to go to work instead of lovely school. But I do not have a watch and tend to know roughly what time it is without looking at a clock.

But, how did they know it was 4am if it was dark and they didn't have a clock anyway? How would anyone know the time in the middle of the night in Middle-earth unless there was someone posted to the job of counting it?

Well I don't think them having clocks would be that outrageous - they have basic technology and as has been pointed out there have been various forms of clock for a very long time - the chinese had mechanical clocks in 200AD and

" Another advance was the invention of spring-powered clocks between 1500 and 1510 by Peter Henlein, a German locksmith from Nuremberg. Replacing the heavy drive weights permitted smaller (and portable) clocks and watches. Henlein nicknamed his clocks "Nuremberg Eggs". Although they slowed down as the mainspring unwound, they were popular among wealthy individuals due to their size and the fact that they could be put on a shelf or table instead of hanging from the wall. They were the first portable timepieces. However, they only had an hour hand, minute hands did not appear until 1670, and there was no glass protection. Glass over the face of the watch did not come about until the 17th century. Still, Henlein's advances in design were precursors to truly accurate timekeeping.

Accurate Mechanical Clocks

In 1656, Christian Huygens, a Dutch scientist, made the first pendulum clock, regulated by a mechanism with a "natural" period of oscillation. Although Galileo Galilei, sometimes credited with inventing the pendulum, studied its motion as early as 1582, Galileo's design for a clock was not built before his death. Huygens' pendulum clock had an error of less than 1 minute a day, the first time such accuracy had been achieved. His later refinements reduced his clock's errors to less than 10 seconds a day. "


http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa071401a.htm

It is quite possible that wealthy hobbits would have had clocks. I don't think it is wrong to assume that 16th century technology is beyond them although I think it more likelythey got them from Dwarves - didn't Bilbo obtain clockwork toys from Dale as presents for his party... or have I just made that up?

Alternatively, I think it is possible to tell the time from the stars?

[wilwarin538]

Whenever I set my alarm clock I always wake up five minutes before it goes off. Its like setting my clock told my head that that's when I wanted to wake up, so I woke up on my own.

A friend of mine before he goes to bed just thinks a certain time and he always wakes up at that time. Its this weird thing some people can do. Merry was just probably one of them.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I'm assuming Merry did what I did this morning:

I knew I had to be two towns over at 9:00 so I set my alarm for 7:30 to give myself time to wake up. I woke up on my own and stared at the clock that said 8:30 and jumped out of bed, realizing I'd forgotten to set my alarm. Grabbing clothes, getting downstairs, and realizing that being dead late allows for immediate waking up, I noted that the clock said... 7:30. I'd set my bedroom clock wrong (whoops). But the point is, I meant to get up at 7:30 and I woke up at 7:30. Without the aid of an alarm that never would have gone off because I pushed the wrong button.

See? My story proves that you don't need an alarm clock to get up on time, if you have sufficient motivation to be out of bed.

[Glirdan]

Has anyone heard of an internal clock? I'm not quite sure how to explain what it is, but a lot of people have them, me for one. No matter what time I go to bed, whether it be midnight or !0:00 pm, I always wake up at 7 in the morning (even though I sleep in during summer (I force myself to go back to sleep)). My grandparents are the same way. I think it's when you have to get up at a certain time, after awhile, you get used to getting up at that time and just wake up, without a clock. Maybe Merry was someone with an internal clock?