Weirdly they didn't test nighttime exposure as an intervention. OK, "weird" means probably it was costly/hard to get people into a lab setting at 9pm... But it does make you wonder!
A different study found that red light helps only if it precedes exposure to blue light, blue light and UV light being the main sources of (oxidative) stress on the retina. Knowing that is probably why they didn't bother testing night-time exposure.
Some believe that the reason red light helps is that cytochrome C oxidase can use the red light to convert serotonin to melatonin and that melatonin is the most important anti-oxidant in the human body. (Under this model, melatonin cannot get into the mitochondria, but serotonin can.)
A few decades ago I had this mysterious sunny morning with colors 10 times brighter than usual. I never managed to figure it out, now the only things I remember are that the curtains were open, the sun came in, I had a dark red box next to my bed that I must have looked at for 20-30 seconds because the color was so absurdly vivid, then I looked at a gold lamp on top and thought woah! The effect persisted for a while, everything in my house looked different. I've also noticed changes in my vision when sleeping in different places.
What little I remember it sure fits your description. I might try hooking up a red heat lamp to a timer as an alarm clock to see what happens.
