The reason photographers use the histogram in their camera is to determine if there is any 'spiking on the right'. A spike in the graph of the histogram at the far right side indicates that the highlights have been so overexposed (blown out) they are solid white with no texture or detail. This is usually undesirable, and it means the exposure has to be adjusted to take care of the problem.
However, when shooting at night the histogram is useless because street lamps, windows in buildings, headlights in cars, and reflections in wet pavement are usually completely blown out. This is to be expected, though, for two reasons: (1) This is what we see. We don't see detail in a distant streetlamp, for example. (2). If you expose for the shadows, or at least if you want some shadow detail like in the photo of Venice, Italy above, the bright lights in the scene will be solid white. HDR doesn't make sense in this situation. If you constantly consult the histogram when shooting at night, you'll conclude that your exposure is wrong. But that may not be the case at all.