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Comment by dilap | Hacker News Reader

I don't know, it can definitely really suck having to wake up in the dark. Waking up to natural sunlight is the way.

Of course the real problem is there's just not enough light in the winter. Not much we can do about that. :-)

It sucks more not being able to do any outdoor physical activity after work for much of the year.

Do you finish work before 5:45pm? The sun would set earlier than that until mid January in NY, and until mid February in SF. And end-of-work would be the time you start outdoor activity, not finish it, so in practice it would be practical to do outdoor activity in the afternoon for 1 month or less.

What time do you wake up?

In Boston (Northernmost major metro on East Coast) the new latest sunrise would be at 8:13am, with a substantial period of twilight before then. Night will officially end at 6:32am, then astronomical twilight ends at 7:06, then officially sunrise at 8:13am. Point is you’re waking up during the dawn even if you’re waking up at 6:30 to get the kids to school.

Lots of people wake up well before then to go lift/exercise. And looking at obesity rates in America, we could stand to change time to better suit that habit. Some of us also like sitting on our porch with a newspaper and a cup of coffee and some eggs to watch the sun come up.

In the northern latitudes where day length actually changes substantially nobody is doing that.

Boston is on the Eastern edge of its time zone so it's not a great example. Seattle's latest sunrise will be almost 09:00.

Seattle is so far north it’s hard for there to be much daylight no matter what you do with your clocks :/

OK then Atlanta which is much further south would be 08:43

Then Georgia can join central time. Changing the clocks is nonsense.

I mean I had to wake up in the dark anyway during childhood even with this time. The sun would be rising as I got into school and would be set when I got through with my extracurriculars which pretty much took place indoors during the winter. This shift would actually have granted me some sunlight during the week in the winter as a child.

$10 wifi enabled light bulb makes it easy to schedule when it turns on to help with this :)

$10 is a lot for a light bulb. If working on computers has taught me anything, it's to not trust fancy new gadgets. I don't want some stupid box to glitch so my light doesn't work. Given what moving away from a natural "rise with the sun" schedule has done, maybe we should go back to that instead of trying to substitute.

I don't think I could roll my eyes any harder if I tried.

> Don't be snarky.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals.

HN Guidelines, https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If you disagree, I suggest explaining why. My arguments are reasonable.

While he was snarky, expressing disdain for technology solutions to every day life problems on a website called... hacker news... is sort of counter-culture here. I get that you have some strong traditionalist views based on this and your other recent commenting, but it's also important to know your audience and that some of those views aren't going to be well received here.

Wifi light bulbs aren't fancy new gadgets. The Phillips Hue, for example, first hit the market nearly a decade ago. I'm sure there has been much development of the concept since and $10 is, for most people, very affordable. Especially the HN crowd.

I can't speak to their efficacy personally, can you? Do you know for a fact that they are error prone? All makes and models? Or did you shallowly dismiss the other person's suggestion?

Too complicated. Buy a $5 analog light timer from the hardware store and plug in your existing lamp.

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