Plastic or Wire crates?

Just curious on others' experiences using crates at night. I'm now 0 for 3 using a plastic crate, in the house at least. Nikon, Ana, and now Pan all would shriek and howling and gnaw at the door of the crate ALL night long in my plastic kennel. Each one I switched to a wire crate and then voila! sleep w/o fussing. The plastic kennel is not too small, but I guess there is just something about it seems more like jail? Or maybe it's b/c I set the crate on the floor so in the wire crate they can see me in the bed?