I don't see a problem with this, the battle last night finished around 12:30am CST (that's 1:30am EST) and it was pushing it for me. If I was east coast, there's no way I would have played in that battle, need at least 6 hours of sleep at night.
I think they should set their night time to start at 11pm EST (not 10pm), as that gives them until 1am to finish a battle (which is pushing it for most people I would imagine with jobs/school, but seems pretty reasonable).
They have night time for a reason, I don't see a problem with people setting it for times when they can actually play.
I personally set my night time to when we can get the most mercs, not when it's most convenient for me. so my night time starts around 3 or 4am CST until 11am or Noon. That way I can get West coast NA mercs before that time (if it's late) and EU mercs if it's the afternoon/early evening (before I'm off work). Being that LCO can field a lot of their own guys for battle, it would make sense for them to set times that they have most of their guys online.