This does sound like a significant service failure and I have sympathy with the OP. On an overnight flight from ATL I would want to sleep for as long as possible so any significant delays would be very disappointing. If it had been me I would probably have made up my own bed and gone to sleep in order to reduce the impact. Nonetheless it should be reported so that it can be investigated especially as it seems to have affected a number of people in the cabin.
It would be interested to hear back from the OP assuming that a complaint is lodged.