Finding Used Night At Storage Sales
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In olden times, when the time expression "at night" was originated, night might have been thought as a point of time in the day because there wasn't any activity going on and people were sleeping that time unlike daytime. But morning, afternoon and evening represent a period of time during the daytime where activities were going on. And as @Joe Blow comments, in the morning/afternoon/night are common usages (where in is a container metaphor which invariably equates to a duration reference in temporal contexts). As opposed to the locational metaphor preposition at, which in temporal contexts normally identifies a specific point in time. The phrase at night tends to be more common in reported speech and other expressions of habit (... sleep at night is a notable example).
Google's account of their usage shows that the first written instances (that they have record of after 1500) of at night are some 50 years before the first in the night. The in the night was heavily favoured by poets, initially Shakespeare, and could have been constructed for its rhythm. At (also †in, †on, before, till, etc.) morning , from morning till evening, from morning to night, etc. Also with adjective, as all (also each, BUY XANAX WITHOUT PRESCRITION every, next, etc.) morning.
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In conclusion, I could find no evidence explaining why "in the morning/afternoon/evening" evolved, but "at night" remained in its original form. This is obviously not a definitive answer, but I post it so that others may pick up where I left off. Following this, it would be logical to claim that something at night is more connected to the time of day than something in the night.
However, at night generally means the specific time between when night begins and when you go to sleep, let's say between 8pm and 10pm. Contrastingly, at [the] afternoon has never had any significant currency. Because afternoon already contains a preposition of time/location (after), adding another one (at) doesn't work.
Equivalent expressions for other times of day are at dawn/daybreak, at midday/noon, at dusk/twilight. Of these, at noon probably occurs most frequently in spoken conversation. The phrase at night implies 'evenings rather than daytime' for the regular calls, a message of temporal contrast. In the night carries no hint of contrast; it describes the dark three-dimensional space into which the woman walked. In summary, night is an exception and is shrunk to a point as a contrastive location in time in the phrase at night and the difference between at night and in the night is explained with examples. It's similar with other specific times of day, such as at midnight or at noon.