The Nasdaq stock market is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to start allowing nearly round-the-clock trading. Nearly, meaning 23 hours a day, five days a week.

If you were to wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden urge to buy a few shares of a stock or an exchange-traded fund, that trade normally wouldn’t take effect until markets open.

Because in the wee hours of the morning, that market infrastructure is “turned off.”

Haoxiang Zhu, a finance professor at MIT and former SEC director said there is demand for overnight trading from retail and international investors.

“For example, investors in Korea, or Japan, or in Europe, who wish to trade in the U.S. market when their time zone has daylight,” he said.

Zhu said that’s putting pressure on exchanges to offer a longer trading day.

Nasdaq didn’t comment for this story but the exchange has said that “global investors expect access on their terms.”

There’s also competition from other exchanges, said Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University.

“It’s possible to trade stocks, bonds, derivatives, there are many different venues that offer after-hours trading,” he said.

Harvey said several fintech companies have offered overnight trading for years.

“The traditional exchanges have been slow to change, and I think, at this point, Nasdaq doesn’t have any choice,” he said.

The New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange are planning to extend their hours as well.