Hacker News Reader

My issue is that work ends at 5pm and the sun is already down.

Business hours. I'm at work from 8AM to 6PM five days a week. Near the winter solstice, the sun sets around 4:30-5:30.

Getting up earlier would just make me have to go to bed earlier. It's dark either way.

Even if your schedule is flexible, other people's schedules aren't. This means that if I want to shift my schedule to wake up earlier to take advantage of the morning light, I either have to miss out on evening social activities (lets say an 8pm dinner), or miss out on sleep.