Advantages of night diving?
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AfterDark
Contributor
Having done hundreds of night dives, from my experience it is no more dangerous than day time diving.
Most creatures of the sea are nocturnal so you’ll see more life after dark.
Also the colors that get washed out by depth are illuminated by your light. You’ll see colors that weren’t visible without the dive light. Then there is visibility. If the vis is 10' and your light has a 5' long beam you are in great vis! At least it seems that way.
You will need good buddy and buoyancy skills, a couple of lights and ideally a buddy that has night diving experience.
Nav is more dependant on the compass as bottom features are not always readly seen. If you don't shine your light on it you wouldn't see it. Most all the sites I dive these days I've dived so many times that I don't remember what it's like to night dive a new site.
Most creatures of the sea are nocturnal so you’ll see more life after dark.
Also the colors that get washed out by depth are illuminated by your light. You’ll see colors that weren’t visible without the dive light. Then there is visibility. If the vis is 10' and your light has a 5' long beam you are in great vis! At least it seems that way.
You will need good buddy and buoyancy skills, a couple of lights and ideally a buddy that has night diving experience.
Nav is more dependant on the compass as bottom features are not always readly seen. If you don't shine your light on it you wouldn't see it. Most all the sites I dive these days I've dived so many times that I don't remember what it's like to night dive a new site.
clownfishsydney
Contributor
As of last night I have done 388 night dives. Our club tries to night dive every Thursday night year round. The only reason we miss a night generally is due to the weather.
I would say that for an experienced diver, night diving is no more challenging than a day dive. It should not be more dangerous. If it is, then you are diving the wrong place. I have done whole dives to 30 m (110 feet) without a torch (to experience flashlight fish), this is certainly challenging, but not dangerous.
Main thing is to dive a location that you are experienced with (if at all possible) so that navigation is easy. If away, then limit how far you go from the boat/entry point.
Probably some of my best dives have been at night, you tend to "see" a lot more because you concentrate only on a narrow field of view (of your torch) rather than looking here and there all the time.
I would say that for an experienced diver, night diving is no more challenging than a day dive. It should not be more dangerous. If it is, then you are diving the wrong place. I have done whole dives to 30 m (110 feet) without a torch (to experience flashlight fish), this is certainly challenging, but not dangerous.
Main thing is to dive a location that you are experienced with (if at all possible) so that navigation is easy. If away, then limit how far you go from the boat/entry point.
Probably some of my best dives have been at night, you tend to "see" a lot more because you concentrate only on a narrow field of view (of your torch) rather than looking here and there all the time.
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theduckguru
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When on deck before and after the dive, you don't need sun screen.
DD, you need to go diving with more cave divers
dumpsterDiver
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DD, you need to go diving with more cave divers
I'm scared of closed spaces...Certainly working in the dark is more challenging and I'm sure they adapt extremely well to the challenge. It's funny that people will say that night is no more dangerous. Other than sharks and eels being more active at night, I have more than once found myself under structure at night (in bad vis). It was so dark that I was unaware I was placing myself in an overhead conditions, while in the day, it would have been obvious. Not all night dives are moonlite adventures with huge lights streaming down from the dive boat anchored in calm clear water that is 37 feet deep.
People can't see when you're out of trim. 
DD, you need to go diving with more cave divers
The only thing I don't like about night dives from liveaboards is that there are usually 12-15 divers in water, just about every one rapidly jerking their light from one thing to another--it look's like they're all signaling emergencies simultaneously!
Martigan
Registered
I suggest anyway to carry a light in all day dives. Perhaps not powered on at all time, but I always carry on either to see in crevices, or to benefit from true colors of some fishes and corals/algae etc. that I want to examine in more detail.
Where I dive most of the time (norther atlantic), the luminosity at depth of 20m / 60' is not very high anyway, so we come to carry a light in the middle of the day quickly, but when you take it to warmer seas and very high vis environment, you don't regret it either.
This kind of question shows why the Advanced Open Water course is NOT totally useless, as some like to claim. When I was an inexperienced diver about to take the AOW course, I think I had vaguely heard of someting called a night dive, but it sounded like something I wouldn't want to do. In the AOW course, the instructor explained pretty much what's stated in the replies here and more, and I did my very first night dive under the watchful eyes of an instructor. My advice is to take AOW and experience a night dive for yourself as one of the "adventure dives" that comprise the AOW course. I love night dives.
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