Flew those night cargoes as a copilot,and sometimes wandered in my thoughts, where would You go if You are alone and something goes berserk.Only someone at the Atc to listen.
This is captain thinking in the making..even with a first officer,you need to have exit plans,without necessarily sharing your thoughts constantly.
When it got too lonely i would fit an earphone with music into my david clarks,so the right would listen to music and the left to ATC.
Now when weather was
,i didnt have time to listen to music anyways