How many pilots show up for a night shift having been up and about all day instead of crawling into bed and getting as much sleep as possible immediately before starting work?
The key is to start with a "Sleep Bonus" rather than a "Sleep Deficit"....and some guys work second jobs...take care of personal business and rely upon what sleep they can get while on duty during the night shift.
You see it at your base I am sure....and I have seen it at the bases I worked. The guys show up saying they are looking forward to a good nights sleep.
The first shift of night time is hard....as one is just beginning to have to adjust your sleep period from a normal routine. As the nights proceed...the ability to sleeep during the day time improves but as you rightly state...is not as good as a normal routine.
When working permanent nights....using blacked out windows on the bedroom....setting the Air Con to "Freeze"....turning off the telephone and disabling the doorbell....and offerering murder and mayhem to the a-hole next door that delighted in mowing his yard under my window when he knew I was trying to sleep.....I tended to get plenty of rest. The key being....no change of routine....until the weekends when the Wife was sleeping nights and I was sleeping days (not....as I was young then and sleep was a second or third priority).
Humans are not nocturnal creatures once we pass the age of about thirty or so.
If visibility is not a key factor....why have the use of NVG's cut down on the numbers of EMS accidents during night flight?