difference in meaning?

I have been discussing with some other students (we are all non-native speakers of English) about whether there exists a difference in meaning between the two expressions "the still of the night" and "the stillness of the night". Some of us felt a slight difference between "still" and "stillness" but none of us could come up with an explanation. What do you think?

The former is much more common, so the latter is sometimes used for effect- mainly emphasis IMO. ;-)

I think there´s a novel by Dean A. Koontz called "In the still of the night"
I have a question for you and your friends Alinel...what does "in the dead of night" mean???does it mean the same as "in the still of the night"?