How Long Is a Minecraft Day and Night?

During the day, players get to enjoy the true beauty of Minecraft for all its colors and almost real-life experience, while at night players encounter all the horrors in the land. Both day and night cycles have their various purposes, but knowing the duration of these cycles helps players prepare better for their arrival, so just how long is a typical Minecraft day and night?

Unlike the real world, a typical daytime in Minecraft lasts for 10 minutes, while nighttime lasts for 7 minutes. This means a day in Minecraft is roughly around 17+ minutes. Minecraft shares very similar features with real-life events, one of which is the day and night cycles.

As players progress in a Minecraft world, they tend to notice two important moments within the game which is the day and night cycle. For more than half of the game, players get to see the sun, and the other half, see the moon. There are also in-between moments like dawn and dusk each with their various time frames, and they also happen before these two important cycles.

Daytime brings a somewhat peaceful aura to the players, but nighttime is the most dangerous part of a typical Minecraft day. Night brings with it the most hostile and frightening mobs the game has to offer like creepers, skeletons, zombies, spiders, and more, some of which do not spawn during the day. At night, all villagers always take shelter in their houses and stay there till the next day.

During the daytime, some of these mobs do not spawn, while others like the spider tend to be less violent. For that reason, daytime is the best moment to have an easier time exploring the world. But just in case you want to know everything about how a typical day and night cycle in Minecraft operates, just keep reading and I will explain everything to you.

How Long Is a Full Minecraft Day?

Daytime is the longest of both cycles in Minecraft, lasting 10 minutes in total. This day-night cycle always starts at the very beginning of the daytime whenever a player first spawns in a single-player world. The same also applies to most multiplayer maps, but the cycle doesn’t change even if a new player joins the server.

Similar to real life, the sun in Minecraft rises to its peak in a light blue sky during the daytime. Although the color of the sky is heavily dependent on the current biome, for example, in the desert biome, the sky tends to have a lighter shade of blue compared to the skies in the plains biome. Once the time hits noon, blocks within a direct vertical view of the sky, all receive sunlight at a light level of 15, which is the highest level.

Sunlight also provides ample light which enhances the growth of grass blocks, saplings, and crops, much like photosynthesis in real life. During the day, most undead mobs like skeletons and zombies that come in direct contact with sunlight (that is they are not under a shade, in water, or wearing a helmet) will immediately be set on fire.

In addition, sunlight also makes spiders neutral, unless they were already chasing the player or provoked.

The Endermen will teleport randomly when near a player if they are exposed to sunlight, they even become neutral if they were aggressive. Daylight sensors also record the highest output level during the daytime. The daylight cycle and its duration have been this way since the game was made, and it is available on all platforms and editions of Minecraft.

How Long Is a Full Minecraft Night?

Nighttime is the second cycle of a typical Minecraft day and it lasts for 7 minutes. At night, the moon rises to its peak in the dark blue sky which is clustered with lots of tiny white stars. These stars also look like they move with the moon, and they first appear right around the end of sunset.

During the nighttime, the Minecraft world gets covered in darkness, the light level also reduces to its lowest level of 4, which reduces visibility and also allows the spawning of hostile mobs on the surface. At this time, all hostile mobs can spawn in an exposed area at an exact duration of 9625 ticks.

Much like in real life, crops don’t stop growing even at night in a Minecraft world unless the players skip the night cycle.

At night, the inverted daylight sensors measure the highest output level. Just like its daylight counterpart, the night cycle has been in Minecraft ever since the game’s creation. It is also a feature available on all Minecraft platforms and editions.

What Time Is Dawn and Dusk in Minecraft?

Dawn

Dawn is the cycle or period that occurs between the nighttime and daytime, it always lasts for one and a half minutes. At this moment, the moon sets on the western horizon, while the sun rises from the eastern horizon respectively (in the pocket edition {PE} the moon sets on the southern horizon and the sun rises from the Northern horizon). The sky next to the rising sun also glows with vibrant orange color.

At dawn, the rising sun tends to look rather larger than it actually is, but it slowly shrinks to its normal 8×8 pixel size once it rises. Every block within direct vertical view of the sky at this time grows at a 1 light level brightness rate every 10 seconds. Mobs will continue to be hostile until the effects of sunlight/daytime return.

Morning twilight starts after approximately 22009 ticks which is the real-time equivalent of 4:00:32 AM. Hostile mobs can only spawn in an exposed area at exactly 22812 ticks (equivalent to 4:48:43 AM) on a clear morning, and 23031 ticks (equivalent to 5:01:08 AM) on a rainy morning.

Dusk

Dusk is the moment or period that occurs between daytime and nighttime, and it lasts for one and a half minutes. At Dusk, the sun sets on the western horizon while the moon rises from the eastern horizon (in the Pocket Edition, the sun sets on the southern horizon while the moon rises from the northern horizon). As the sun sets, the sky near it gives off a vibrant orange-red glow, while the sun also grows larger than it is as it sets.

Every block within a direct vertical view of the sky in this period experiences a brightness decrease of 1 every 10 seconds, except they are lit by other light sources. Players can also sleep in a bed between dusk and dawn in a single player world, this automatically changes the night cycle to dawn and sets the weather to clear.

The same also applies to a multiplayer server, but for this to happen everyone on the server needs all sleep on a bed.

How Long Is a Minecraft 24 Hours?

A day in Minecraft (24 Hours) lasts for 20 minutes in real-time, which is about 24,000 ticks in-game. For extra insight, there are 72 Minecraft days, in a single real-world day which is 24 hours in real-time.

Clocks

Similar to the real-world counterpart, a Minecraft clock allows a player to determine the Minecraft time. They are most especially useful while a player is underground or in a mine where the day/night cycle of the world is not visible. Clocks tend to spin randomly while in the Nether and end because both dimensions have no day-night cycle.

Minecraft Time to Real Time

In Minecraft, the day and night cycle is actually a 20 Minute long lapse that occurs between the two main light settings. Minecraft time moves at exactly 72 times faster than a real lifetime, this figure was easily calculated by the equation (the number of minutes in a real day which is 1440 minutes) divided by the (number of minutes in a full Minecraft day which is 20 minutes), basically, 1440⁄20 = 72.

The table below represents a full conversion of the time unit between Minecraft time and real-time.

Real Time to Minecraft Time

This table displays the real-time approximation of a Minecraft time.

How Do You Count Days in Minecraft?

Just a brief warning, this particular method makes use of commands which are cheats in Minecraft, so first, create a copy of your world before doing it or you will no longer gain achievements in your Minecraft world. In the command section, the time query command is used to check how many in-game days and ticks had passed since the world’s creation.

Simply use the command [/time query day] if you want to check how many days had passed since its creation, and then command [/time query game time] if you want to know how many ticks had passed since its creation.

How Do You Make Your Day Night Cycle Longer in Minecraft?

You can perform this task in a cheat enabled world using the command blocks and some Redstones, just follow these steps, first of all, you need to set [/gamerule doDaylightCycle] to false, to stop the natural daylight cycle, here, you are going to use command blocks (/give <username> command_block), some redstone, and the command [/time add <number>] to control the daylight cycle, using this simple illustration below.

The command on the command block is [/time add <number>], tuned however you would like (1 item in the clock with an increment of 5 results in a 28 minute day), there is no hidden redstone, and both pistons are sticky, the hoppers feed into each other, and you choose the number of items put in (more items means slower day/night cycle), the formula for calculating the length of daytime is 140 * (items/number) minutes of daytime (double that for the length of a whole day).

You’re also going to want to use the command /gamerule commandBlockOutput false if you don’t want periodic chat updates saying Added 1 to time, you are also going to want to put this in your spawn chunk if you intend for it to work no matter where you are in the world (determine your spawn chunk by breaking your bed and killing yourself).

How Do You Skip Night in Minecraft?

If you want to skip a day in Minecraft there are a couple of options to take, the first and easy way is to just simply sleep on a bed. Doing this saves your spawn point and immediately ends the night cycle, bear in mind this method is the only way to get through a night in a cheat-free survival world, sleeping on a bed won’t make your crops grow faster nor will your furnace cook faster.

The other way is to change the time using the cheat /Time set sunrise or /Time set day, doing this instantly skips the night cycle, however, this method is only for a cheat enabled world.