8 Hour Timer

Press Start to count down 8 hours.

This free 8 hour timer counts down 8 hours with a shrinking red disc you can read at a glance. 8 hours is 28,800 seconds (twenty-eight thousand eight hundred seconds), or 480 minutes. It is a working day, a full night of sleep and a slow cooker on low.

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What a 8 hour timer is good for

Eight hours is the classic length of a working day and the amount of sleep most adults are told to aim for. It is also how long many slow cooker recipes need on the low setting.

A working day

An eight hour countdown helps you plan breaks and see how much of the day is left.

A night of sleep

Adults need around seven to nine hours of sleep. Eight hours is about five ninety minute sleep cycles.

Slow cooking on low

Stews, pulled pork and chilli often cook for eight hours on low.

An exam or event day

Long event days and sports tournaments often run for eight hours.

To pace yourself, glance at the disc rather than the numbers. With the 8 hour timer running, half the colour has gone after 4 hours, and when only a quarter is left you have 2 hours to wrap up. Open fullscreen if the timer needs to be read across a room, and add a label so everyone knows what the 8 hours are for.

How to use the 8 hour timer

  1. It is ready

    The dial is already set to 8 hours. To change it, drag the disc, tap a preset or open Custom.

  2. Press Start

    Or press the Space bar. The red disc shrinks back towards 12 o’clock as the time runs down.

  3. Watch the disc

    Read the time left at a glance, or open fullscreen for a big dial that fills the screen.

  4. Time’s up

    Your alarm plays until you press Stop. Press Reset or R to run the same time again.

8 hours in other units

8 hours equals
Seconds28,800
Minutes480
Hours8
Days0.3333
Fraction of a day1/3

Why use this timer

Why a visual timer helps

A shrinking disc turns time into something you can see. You read how much is left at a glance, without doing sums on a clock, and an invisible deadline feels less stressful when you can watch it approach. That is why visual timers are a staple in classrooms and are widely used by people with ADHD and autistic children and adults. Read our guide to using a visual timer, how it helps with ADHD time blindness, classroom transitions and autism.

Why this timer is accurate

The countdown is anchored to your device clock rather than counted in animation frames. It does not drift if you switch tabs or your screen sleeps: it keeps running in the background and still sounds the alarm on time. When you come back, the disc jumps straight to the correct position.

Frequently asked questions

There are 28,800 seconds in 8 hours, which is 480 minutes.

Pacing an eight hour working day, planning a full night’s sleep, a slow cooker on low or an all-day event.

Yes. The 8 hour countdown is anchored to your device clock rather than counted frame by frame, so it stays accurate in a background tab and the alarm still fires when the 8 hours are up.

No. The 8 hour timer runs in your browser on phone, tablet and desktop. It is free, and there is no account, app or download.

Yes. Press the fullscreen button or the F key. The dial fills the screen, so the remaining part of the 8 hours is readable from the back of the room.

Yes, once this page has loaded. Nothing is sent over the network while the 8 hours count down, so a dropped connection will not stop the timer.

Sleep moves through light, deep and REM stages in cycles of about ninety minutes. Eight hours is around five full cycles.

Four hundred and eighty minutes, which is 28,800 seconds.

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