After midnight is when the party was just starting, heck Eric Clapton wrote a song about it. Of course now a days he's probably singing something more like after 8 o'clock I'm gonna go soak my dentures
But for the last few years I usually preferred to drink at home but still occasionally hit the bars and clubs but was already pretty good and drunk when I made the decision to go. But even without drinking I tend to stay up till 1 or 2am and up between 7-8 in the morning.