Sunrise and sunset in Freiburg

Quick answer

What time does the sun rise in Freiburg?

It ranges from about 05:29 at the height of summer (June) to about 08:14 at the darkest point of the year (January). Month-by-month times are below.

Sunrise and sunset through the year

Times for the 15th of each month in Freiburg local time, 2026.

Month	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight
January	08:14	17:03	8h 48m
February	07:37	17:51	10h 14m
March	06:43	18:34	11h 50m
April	06:40	20:18	13h 38m
May	05:51	21:01	15h 09m
June	05:29	21:30	16h 01m
July	05:45	21:25	15h 40m
August	06:24	20:44	14h 20m
September	07:06	19:44	12h 38m
October	07:48	18:42	10h 54m
November	07:35	16:53	9h 17m
December	08:12	16:37	8h 24m

The months that wreck your mornings

In Freiburg the latest sunrise of the year is around 08:14 in January. If your alarm goes off before that, you are getting up in what your body still considers night. That is not a motivation problem. Your circadian rhythm is driven by light hitting receptors in your eyes, which trigger the cortisol rise that makes you feel awake. No light, no signal — so the usual advice about willpower misses the mechanism entirely.

The full guide to waking up before sunrise covers how to fake the missing dawn, and why light beats discipline for shifting a body clock.

What actually works when the sun is not up yet

Put light where you land. A bright lamp on a timer, or a sunrise lamp, gives your body the signal your window is not providing.
Get outside within an hour. Even an overcast winter morning delivers far more light than any indoor room.
Anchor the wake-up time. Consistency matters more in winter, not less — a drifting schedule plus a dark morning is the worst combination.
Remove the easy off switch. Dark mornings produce the deepest sleep inertia of the year, and that is exactly when alarms get dismissed on autopilot.

Other cities

Elsewhere in Germany:

Working out a bedtime for a dark winter wake-up? The sleep calculator will do the maths.

Frequently asked questions

What time does the sun rise in Freiburg?

It swings a long way across the year. The earliest sunrise is around 05:29 in June, and the latest is around 08:14 in January. The month-by-month table on this page gives the times for the 15th of each month.

When is it darkest in the morning in Freiburg?

Around January, when the sun does not come up until roughly 08:14. If you get up before that, you are waking in biological night — your body clock has had no light signal yet, which is exactly why winter mornings feel so much harder.

Why is waking up before sunrise so much harder?

Because your circadian rhythm runs on light, not on clocks. Morning light shuts down melatonin and triggers the cortisol rise that makes you feel alert. Before sunrise none of that has happened, so your body is still in night mode when the alarm goes off.

Does a sunrise lamp actually help?

It helps some people, by simulating a dawn your window is not providing. It is not a replacement for an alarm you cannot ignore, though — a gradual light on its own is easy to sleep straight through in the depths of winter.

Why people use Captain Wake to wake up on time

Not because it rings louder. Because it removes every way your half-asleep brain talks you back into bed.

There is no button to tap

Swiping an alarm away is a reflex you can perform while still asleep. A mission needs your thinking brain switched on — and once it is on, sinking back under is much harder.

It survives every trick

Force-quit the app, restart the phone, flip it to silent, turn the volume down. The alarm re-arms and keeps going until the mission is actually done.

It gets you physically upright

Photo and barcode missions are anchored to a spot in another room, so the only way to stop the noise is to stand up and walk there. You cannot pre-stage it from bed.

It fixes the night, not just the morning

A sleep forecast before bed, bedtime reminders and wake-up streaks — because the 6 AM problem usually starts at 1 AM.

Dark outside is not a reason your alarm accepts.

Captain Wake keeps ringing until you complete a real-world mission — even at 08:14 in the pitch black.

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