Yes I'm pretty-much a human zombie in the morning. I've never been a morning person. I may get up early (more-so in the summer than in the winter.) But it takes me until around noon to actually wake up. Still I fight through it & do what needs to be done. I also tend to be flooded with a lot of compulsive intrusive & negative thoughts in the morning as well. I've tried various things to deal with this. But, over time, I've just come to accept that this is the way it is for me & I just allow it to be there... because it already is. (I'm also not on any psych med's, or any other types of med's either for that matter.)

I don't tend to experience a sense of dread as it gets dark. I've always loved the peace & quiet of the deep night. As I've aged, I do sometimes have gentle waves of a kind-of generalized fear & paranoia that wash over me. I presume it's all, to a large extent, related to getting old along with the high levels of generalized anxiety I've always had. They're not overwhelming or significantly disturbing. I don't have any suggestions for this sort of thing. I simply meet it all with mindfulness & compassionate abiding.