Many believe that the daylight cycle in Minecraft is an even fifty-fifty split between night and day, but this is not the case. So, today, we explore the specifics of the Minecraft daylight cycle and answer, “How long is a Minecraft day?”

How Long Is a Minecraft Day?

A Minecraft day in its entirety is exactly 24000 ticks or twenty minutes. Of those 24000 ticks, daytime takes up exactly half, with 12000 ticks, or ten minutes. However, those ten minutes do not mark the beginning or end of sunlight. Sunrise and sunset both last 1000 ticks, or fifty seconds, and are on the nighttime half of the Minecraft daylight cycle. This means that, despite night in Minecraft usually feeling a lot longer, it only lasts for 10000 ticks, or about eight minutes and twenty seconds.

Daylight Cycle Blocks & Items

Clock

Added all the way back in Java Edition Alpha 1.2.0, the Minecraft clock has faithfully depicted the time of day without much mechanical change for over a decade. It is best used in combination with an item frame so that it can be placed as a decoration in one’s base or home. Clocks in item frames still function correctly and show the ever-changing time of day. A clock can be crafted on a crafting table with one redstone and four gold ingots. The redstone is placed in the middle of the crafting table, followed by one gold ingot above, below, and to the right and left of the redstone.

Daylight Detector

The daylight detector is a slab-like block that gives off a redstone signal based on its exposure to sunlight or darkness, depending on how it is set. Popular uses for it include lighting systems that automatically turn on at night and gates that automatically open at daybreak. Daylight detectors can be crafted on a crafting table using three wooden slabs, three quartz, and three glass blocks. The three slabs line the bottom row of the crafting table, while the three quarts line the middle row, and the glass blocks line the top row.

Minecraft Daylight Cycle Commands

Disabling the Daylight Cycle

• /gamerule doDaylightCycle false OR true

By default, this gamerule is set to true. Setting it to false causes the daylight cycle to freeze at the exact time the command was entered.

Manually Setting Time

• /time set day
• /time set noon
• /time set sunset
• /time set night
• /time set midnight
• /time set sunrise

Using this command allows time to be manually set as desired. Those who prefer can also enter the exact tick within the 24000 tick day cycle instead. “Time set 12000” would be sunset, for example.