I reviewed my logs, and it's true that I had fewer than 15m connections at night, but they weren't completely absent. It seems the issue might be related to signal suppression?
Some large, powerful repeaters that tend to cluster together are not keen on using certain frequency bands when propagation is poor, especially since they also need to rest at night. This creates a relatively good communication window, even though propagation may not be optimal. As for Europe, daytime visibility should generally be good in most areas. It's still important to choose the right frequencies and avoid times when propagation is best (if conditions allow for easy signal suppression) or worst.