It has been accepted by most of the Strat community that field battles will happen at shit times. If you are trying to catch some army, you can't pm them and ask them to 'sit still for 8 hours, and don't move any reinforcing armies for 8 hours either'. It is shitty, but what can one do. Many people have lost huge armies for attacking or being attacked at shitty times (myself included, as I always forget why the hell my alarm is going off at 3 am and quickly turn it off).
Many people have suggested strat battles should only happen at primetime, which would suck now for Eu, but if you can't make it at least your mercs will.