The hour has a different quality of dark. Not the late dark, which still carries residue of evening, and not the early dark, which already anticipates morning. This is the absolute dark — the hour the body is most certain it would prefer to be elsewhere.
I have been awake in it for three hours. The question I was trying to solve at midnight has dissolved into a different question. The questions multiply in the dark. This is why people pray, I think. To have something to address the questions to.