How to Set Time to Day or Night in Minecraft

Many players struggle with time in Minecraft. However, if you know how to set the time to day or night in Minecraft, you can be in charge of your world and make it run at your command. Before changing the time, you will have to spend time understanding its mechanics. So, let’s not waste a moment and discover everything about the time command. Also, we will explain the in-game tick and how you can use it to control the time of day.

How Does Time Work in Minecraft?

Time in Minecraft is measured in ticks. A single tick lasts for 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) and finishes an in-game logical loop in that time. This loop does a variety of things in-game, such as including mob spawning, block updates, Redstone mechanics, and more. You can use our dedicated guide to Minecraft ticks and learn everything about it.

Furthermore, the same ticks make up a Minecraft day. One complete day-night cycle lasts for 24,000 ticks or 20 minutes in the real world. You can use the time command to skip parts of the day by adding a few ticks to the time that has passed in the game.

How Does Time Command Affect the Game?

The time command only affects the daylight cycle and the overall world time. This command can’t be used to speed up the world or its processes. However, you can use the command to avoid nighttime, thus, spotting hostile mobs to spawn. But if you want to speed up or slow down time in your world, you can use the recently added tick command.

How to Change Random Tick Speed in Minecraft?

With every tick, Minecraft updates a random set of blocks. In the Java edition, three blocks are updated, whereas only one block is updated with each tick in the Bedrock edition. You can use the “gamerule” command to change this random tick speed and speed up the updating of blocks.

We already have a dedicated guide that covers how to change random tick speed in Minecraft. You can use this guide to change the speed of most entities and block updates in your game.

Uses of Time Command in Minecraft

The most common way to use the time command is to change the time of the day and set it to noon, day, or night. But you can also use this command to check and modify the time of your day. It has three keywords:

• Add: Allows you to add time to the age of your Minecraft world
• Query: Shows the detail of elapsed time
• Set: Allows you to set your day-night cycle to a specific time

How to Use Time Command in Minecraft

Just like other useful commands in Minecraft, you can only use the time command in Minecraft in a cheats-enabled world. So, you first need to enable cheats in your game. For that, you have to toggle the “Allow Cheats” option in the LAN settings that are available in the pause menu on the Java edition. Meanwhile, the same can be turned on in the world settings on the Bedrock edition.

Once you have enabled cheats, you need to enter the time command in the chat section (accessible using the T key or right button on your D-Pad) to set the time to day or night. So, let’s go over the different syntaxes and keywords to make the most out of it.

1. Add Time Command

To add time to your Minecraft world, you have to use the following syntax of the time command:

/time add X

Here, “X” is the numerical value by which you want to increase the time. It has to be followed by “d” for days, “s” for seconds, and “t” for ticks. For example, /time add 22d adds twenty-two days to the world’s age.

2. Time Command: Query

The “query” keyword of the time command is the simplest one and shows the amount of time that has passed in your world. The syntax for this command is as under:

/time query Y

In this syntax, the “Y” can be replaced with “day”, “daytime”, and “gametime”. Each of them displays a different value:

• Day: Number of days that have passed in your world
• Daytime: Current time of your day in terms of ticks. It resets after every day-night cycle and can’t be more than 24,000.
• Gametime: Number of ticks that have passed since the creation of your world

3. Set Time Command

The last keyword for the time command is “set”, and it’s the most powerful one. You can use the following format to change the time in the day-night cycle:

/time set A

Here, “A” can be replaced by “day”, “noon”, “night” and “midnight”. Then, the game will set your day’s time to the time relative to that keyword. For example, you can use the command – /time set midnight to enjoy the moonlit skies and mob fights in Minecraft.

Alternatively, you can also use the time command to reset your Minecraft world’s time. To do so, use the following syntax:

/time set B

Here, “B” needs to be replaced by a numerical value. You need to add “s” for seconds, “d” for days, or “t” for ticks to the numerical value. This will set your world’s time to a specific time. For example, “/set time 0t” will restart the clock for your world.

The GIF below showcases what add, query, and set commands do in-game. When it comes to the set keyword, we include only the second way you can use it, which restarts your day counter to zero. To set the time to day and night, read the instructions below.

How to Set Time to Day in Minecraft

Now that you are familiar with the time command in Minecraft, it’s time to use it to control the day. Use this command to set the time to daytime:

/time set day OR /time set 1000

Both of the above-mentioned commands will turn your game’s time to early morning. But we suggest you use the “set day” keyword, as it doesn’t affect the number of days that have passed. However, “set 1000” will set your in-game days to zero.

Alternatively, you can also set the day’s time to noon using the command below. The “noon” keyword sets your world time to the middle of the day. It is the time with maximum natural light and brightness in Minecraft.

/time set noon OR /time set 6000

How to Set Time to Night in Minecraft

To set your world’s time to nighttime, you can use the command below:

/time set night OR /time set 13000

This command sets the time of your world to early in the night. As soon as you use it, hostile mobs will start spawning in your world. Not to forget, we suggest you use the “set night” keyword instead of “set 13000” to make sure the number of days in your world doesn’t become zero.

Moreover, if you want to skip further into the night, you can use the following command:

/time set midnight OR /time set 18000

As you might guess from the keyword term, this command sets your world’s time to midnight. With that, you can expect yourself to be surrounded by darkness and hostile Minecraft mobs in no time. Now, you know how to easily set the time to day or night in Minecraft.

How Long Is an In-Game Day in Minecraft?

In terms of in-game ticks, a complete Minecraft day can be broken down into four parts:

Time of the Day	Ticks
Sunrise	1
Noon	6000
Night/Sunset	13000
Midnight	18000
Next Day	24000

You can use these values with the “time set” command to change your world’s setting as you desire. Similarly, these ticks can also be converted into real-world time. Use the table below to make the best use of your Minecraft farms in the context of real-world time.

Ticks	Minecraft Time	Real World Time
24,000	1 Day	20 Minutes
1,000	1 Hour	50 Seconds
168,000	1 Week	~2.3 Hours
192,000	1 Lunar (Moon) Cycle	~2.6 Hours
12,000	12 Hours	10 Minutes

With that, you now have the power to control and twist the time in Minecraft. You can now easily tune the aesthetics of a day, age out your world, and even skip day or night altogether. And if you wish to make all of these commands even more effective, we suggest you get a command block in Minecraft.

Having said that, which time of the day do you prefer in Minecraft — day or night? Let your votes pour into the comments below!