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Sunset times

Quick answer

Why does the sunset time matter for your sleep?

Darkness is the cue that starts your body winding down for sleep. When the sun sets in the late afternoon but you sit under bright screens for hours after, you override that cue and drift later — which is exactly why winter alarms feel impossible. Pick your city to see when it gets dark.

How far it swings

Earliest and latest sunset of the year in a few cities, computed rather than asserted:

CityEarliest sunsetLatest sunset
London15:52 (Dec)21:20 (Jun)
New York City16:30 (Dec)20:30 (Jun)
Los Angeles16:46 (Dec)20:07 (Jun)
Chicago16:21 (Dec)20:28 (Jun)
San Francisco16:53 (Dec)20:34 (Jun)
Toronto16:42 (Dec)21:02 (Jun)

Major cities

Thousands of cities are covered — start with the majors below; each city page links to others nearby.

United Kingdom

United States

Canada

Mexico

Brazil

Argentina

Peru

Colombia

Chile

France

Germany

The Netherlands

Belgium

Spain

Portugal

Italy

Switzerland

Austria

Czechia

Poland

Sweden

Norway

Denmark

Finland

Ireland

Iceland

Greece

Hungary

Romania

Ukraine

Russia

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Israel

Egypt

Kenya

Nigeria

South Africa

Morocco

Japan

South Korea

China

Hong Kong

Taiwan

Singapore

Thailand

Malaysia

Indonesia

Philippines

Vietnam

India

Pakistan

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Australia

New Zealand

Nepal

Iran

Iraq

Jordan

Lebanon

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ivory Coast

Why dark evenings make mornings harder

Your circadian rhythm takes its main cue from light. Evening darkness should trigger melatonin and pull you toward sleep — but artificial light after sunset blunts that, so your clock slips later and later. The alarm you set does not move, so it starts landing in deep sleep. The answer is managing light, covered in light exposure and sleep and fixing a drifted schedule. See also sunrise times, hours of daylight, time differences, and the sleep calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between sunset and dusk?

Sunset is the moment the sun drops below the horizon. It is still fairly light for a while afterwards — full darkness comes at the end of civil twilight (civil dusk), usually 30–40 minutes later, and longer at high latitudes in summer.

When is the earliest sunset of the year?

In the northern hemisphere it falls in early-to-mid December — slightly before the winter solstice, not on it, because of the way the solar day drifts. Each city page here lists the month-by-month times.

Do these times include daylight saving?

Yes. Every time is shown in the city local time using current timezone rules, so the clock change is already baked in.

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.

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