I have worked graveyard shift at a hospital for over 4 years now. As everything in life there are some advantages and disadvantages to this.

Advantages: generally less work then during the day, no boss around, sometimes its possible to take a nap, generally better pay and less hours worked.

Disadvantages: during the winter I sometimes don't see the sun for weeks, you work opposite to your spouse and sometimes you dont see her for days, its more taxing on the body (if you don't take care of yourself)

Some tips that I can give from personal experience:
1. Very important: make sure your room is completely dark, not even a little bit of light coming in, and as quiet as possible. Your body needs to be fooled that it is night when its actually daylight and kids are playing outside.
2. Come back from work and don't screw around, go to bed immediately. The longer you wait, the harder it is to fall asleep.
3. If you have a hard time sleeping for 8 hours straight, then take a nap right before work. This technique is very helpful.
4. Don't eat too close to bedtime
5. Once again, make sure you get your normal amount of sleep, otherwise you will have "sleep debt" accumulated and you will be cranky and tired.
6. Melatonin is very helpful if you start having trouble sleeping. It is specifically indicated for shift work disorders.
7. At least some exercise is a good idea.

As you might have guessed from my post, sleep is very improtant for shift workers. If you are not able to sleep during the day, for whatever reason , perhaps you should switch do days in the future.

I actually prefer graveyard for the above advantages, and since I can sleep during the day well, I handled it pretty good till now.

Alex