I realized years ago that there's a sort of parallelism in the album's beginning and ending with the sound of a gong (I think it's even the same recording, just played backwards at the beginning). Half of the poem at the beginning is repeated at the end too ("Cold hearted orb that rules the night..."). Recently, though, I realized that there's also a parallelism in the time signatures.
"Dawn Is a Feeling" is the first track played by the Moody Blues (rather than the orchestra), and it's in 3/4. "Nights in White Satin" is the last track, and it's also in 3/4. All of the other tracks are in duple meter (most are 4/4, but I think "Another Morning" is 2/4). Those two songs in 3/4 are an-other parallel feature on the album, but when contrasted with the other songs in 4/4, I think they also represent the lingering effects or beginning stages of sleep. 3/4 has one fewer beat per measure than 4/4, and since the two 3/4 songs are positioned at the beginning and end of the day, this "missing" beat can be attributed to sleepiness. There's not as much energy at dawn or night in the same way that there aren't as many beats per measure in the songs describing those periods of time.
