How Long Is a Day in Minecraft? Day and Night Cycle Explained
You come out of a cave with a stack of iron, and the sky is already dark. Or you plant a field and have no idea how long to wait before you can harvest. Both problems start with the same question: how long is a day in Minecraft?
The short answer is 20 real minutes. One full Minecraft day, from one sunrise to the next, lasts 20 minutes on your clock. The cycle is not split evenly between light and dark, though, and the details change how you plan your time. This guide shows each part of the cycle, how Minecraft time compares to real time, how to check the time in the game, and how to change it.
These widths use the same tick ranges as the table: day 0–12,000, sunset 12,000–13,000, night 13,000–23,000, and sunrise 23,000–24,000.
How Long Is a Day in Minecraft in Real Time?
A day lasts 20 minutes in real time. The game runs at 20 ticks per second, and a full day is 24,000 ticks, so 24,000 divided by 20 gives 1,200 seconds. That is exactly 20 minutes.
This means time in Minecraft passes 72 times faster than in real life. If you play for one real hour, three full Minecraft days go by.
The day and night cycle is the same on a phone, a PC, and a console. It also works the same in Java and Bedrock, so you do not need to learn two sets of numbers.
The Four Parts of the Day
The cycle has four parts: day, sunset, night, and sunrise. The Minecraft Wiki measures them in ticks, and the table below turns those ticks into real time.
Part of the day
Ticks
Real time into the cycle
How long it lasts
Day
0 to 12,000
0:00 to 10:00
10 minutes
Sunset
12,000 to 13,000
10:00 to 10:50
About 50 seconds
Night
13,000 to 23,000
10:50 to 19:10
About 8 minutes 20 seconds
Sunrise
23,000 to 24,000
19:10 to 20:00
About 50 seconds
You may see other guides say the night lasts 7 minutes, with dusk and dawn at 1.5 minutes each. Those numbers add up to 20 too, but they count the dark part from a different starting point. The tick numbers above come from the Minecraft Wiki, so they are the safest to use when you plan something exact.
What Happens During the Day
Daytime is the longest and safest part. The sun starts at tick 0, reaches its highest point at noon (tick 6,000, about five minutes in), and starts to set at tick 12,000.
Crops and trees need light to grow, and sunlight gives them plenty. Zombies, skeletons, and phantoms that stand in direct sunlight catch fire and burn, unless they wear a helmet or stand in water or shade. This makes the day the best time to explore the surface, build, and gather resources.
What Happens at Sunset and Night
At sunset the sky turns orange and the light drops. Villagers go to their beds when sunset starts. Around the 10 minute and 30 second mark, the sky is dark enough that you can sleep in a bed.
Night begins at tick 13,000, just under 11 minutes into the cycle. Hostile mobs such as zombies, skeletons, spiders, and creepers can spawn on any dark block outside, so they appear much more often. You will also see more of them near caves, where it is dark all day.
If you are caught outside, the safest choices are to dig in, build a small shelter, or place torches around you. Our guide on how to play Minecraft covers a simple first night shelter.
What Happens at Sunrise
Sunrise starts at tick 23,000, about 19 minutes in, and the light slowly returns. As the sun comes up, mobs that burn in sunlight start to burn. The day then restarts at tick 24,000, which counts as tick 0 again.
Minecraft Time vs Real Time
If you want to plan a farm or a long wait, this table helps.
Minecraft time
Real time
1 Minecraft hour
50 seconds
1 day
20 minutes
1 week (7 days)
2 hours 20 minutes
1 month (30 days)
10 hours
1 year (365 days)
About 5 real days
3 days
1 hour
1 real day
72 Minecraft days
A real hour equals three Minecraft days, which is handy when you plan something that works on in-game days, such as phantoms or the moon.
How to Check the Time in Minecraft
The easiest way is a clock. A clock is crafted from four gold ingots and one piece of redstone dust, and it shows the position of the sun and moon on its face. It only works in the Overworld. In the Nether and the End there is no day and night cycle, so the needle spins without any meaning.
You can also see the sky: a red sunset means night is close. If you play on a world with cheats on, the command /time query daytime shows the current time in ticks.
What Happens If You Do Not Sleep?
If you stay awake for about three Minecraft days in a row, which is around one real hour, phantoms start to appear at night. They fly in from above and attack, and they are one of the main reasons beds matter.
Sleeping in a bed skips the night and sets your respawn point. In multiplayer, the rule on how many players need to sleep depends on the world settings.
How to Change the Time with Commands
On a world with cheats on, you can set the time yourself.
Command
What it does
/time set day
Sets the time to morning (tick 1,000)
/time set noon
Sets the time to noon (tick 6,000)
/time set night
Sets the time to night (tick 13,000)
/time set midnight
Sets the time to midnight (tick 18,000)
/time set 0
Sets the time to the start of the day
/time query daytime
Shows the current time in ticks
Bedrock also has /time set sunrise and /time set sunset. To stop the sun and moon from moving, you can turn off the daylight cycle game rule. The exact name of that rule changed in recent Java versions, so type /gamerule and let the game suggest the right one. Our guide on how to teleport in Minecraft explains how to turn on cheats if you have not done that yet.
Why Day Length Matters for Farming
Crops need light to grow. A plant needs a light level of 9 or higher, so a field in the open air grows during the day and slows down when it gets dark. Torches or glowstone over the field keep it growing at night too. Planning around the 20 minute cycle also helps you decide when to go mining and when to come home.
If you want to build a food supply, see how to farm in Minecraft.
Tips for Using Your Day Well
Use the first 10 minutes of a new world for wood, stone tools, food, and a bed. Move underground when it gets dark, because caves are dark in the day as well, so night does not change anything below the surface. Keep a few torches and a bed in your pack, and set your spawn near your base so a night away from home is not a problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
01How long is a Minecraft day in real life?
A full day lasts 20 real minutes. That is 10 minutes of daytime, about 50 seconds of sunset, about 8 minutes 20 seconds of night, and about 50 seconds of sunrise.
02How long is a Minecraft night?
The dark part of the cycle, from tick 13,000 to tick 23,000, lasts about 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Many guides round this to 7 minutes because they count from a different point.
03How many Minecraft days are in one real hour?
Three. A real hour is 60 minutes and each Minecraft day is 20 minutes.
04How many real days is a Minecraft year?
A Minecraft year of 365 days takes about five real days of play time.
05Can I make the Minecraft day longer?
Not in the normal settings. You can stop the daylight cycle with a game rule, or set the time with /time set, but the speed of time stays the same.
06Does the day length differ between Java and Bedrock?
No. Both editions use a 24,000 tick day that lasts 20 minutes.
07Does sleeping skip the whole night?
Yes, when you are allowed to sleep. You can sleep once it is dark enough, and the game moves the time to morning. In some cases, such as a monster near your bed or a world with special settings, you may not be able to.
Conclusion
A day in Minecraft lasts 20 real minutes: 10 minutes of day, about 50 seconds of sunset, about 8 minutes 20 seconds of night, and about 50 seconds of sunrise. Once you know that, it gets much easier to plan your mining trips, your farms, and when to go to bed.
