It would be dangerous to try unless you've had plenty of practise. Please don't try and do this.
Just change the sockets under daylight hours, isolate the circuit as you did (or better just use the main switch), and try and avoid touching the wires together. When changing sockets it shouldn't be too hard to keep them separate.
The reason is that the Neutral wire is connected to other Neutral wires and touching it to earth is providing an alternative path back for some current, so the safety device kicks in just in case this current is going through a person.