Minecraft gives you ways to know almost everything about your surroundings, from a map showing you the lay of the land to a compass pointing you back toward your spawn. One thing that most tips and tricks guides won’t go over is how long a day is, which is very important since nighttime is when all the most dangerous mods come out to play. You’re always free to make a bed and sleep the night away (assuming an enemy isn’t too close) but if that’s not an option you will want to know how long you have to wait until the sun rises, or how long until it sets so you make sure to get back to your house in time. Here’s exactly how long a Minecraft day is.
How long is a day in Minecraft?
One full day and night cycle in Minecraft takes exactly 20 minutes. That comes out to three in game days per real-world hour. Days and nights last equal amounts of time, that being 10 minutes, with the ability to sleep beginning once the time ticks over that 10-minute mark. However, we can get more specific than that because Minecraft does actually have times you can translate to know how long each part of a day lasts.
| Real time |
Minecraft time |
| 0:00 | Sunrise |
| 0:23 | Morning |
| 5:00 | Noon |
| 9:41 | Sunset |
| 10:28 | Sleeping becomes available |
| 10:52 | Dusk |
| 11:32 | Night begins |
| 15:00 | Midnight |
| 18:47 | Light on the horizon |
| 19:06 | Dawn begins |
| 19:30 | Moon sets |
While it won’t give you an exact number, you can more easily tell the time in Minecraft by crafting a clock. You can make one on a Crafting Table by placing one Redstone dust in the center square and one Gold Ingot directly above, below, and on either side of it. This can at least let you know when you’re running out of daylight, but at the point where you have the materials to make one, odds are you won’t need a clock anyway.
