How to sleep and what it does in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Is sleeping and rest important in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, especially if you’ve been playing the game several hours? It’s not a difficult task when you want to do it, thankfully, but is it something you need to be doing?

On your first day during Animal Crossing you and your residents will work together to make a campfire and gather up supplies for a drink. After getting to know each other, choosing an island name, and coming together as a group Tom Nook recommends you go lay down for some rest. You can do this by placing down the cot he gives you in your designated tent, standing perpendicular to it, and then move over to it by pressing the A button. A notification pops up asking if you’d like to rest for the day, and saying yes has the screen fade to black.

Unfortunately, sleeping does not advance time, and it doesn’t do much for you. If you’re waiting on a project to finish in a day, you need to wait for a full real-world day to pass before it arrives. You have the option to time travel, but it’s not recommended, and it’s generally done as a last resort to obtain resources, or to have tasks quickly finish. Because there’s so much to do in New Horizons, you’re better off finding other activities to occupy your time and work on any Nook Mile tasks. Eventually, you will have the opportunity to make a bed rather than sleeping on a cot.

Sleeping is important in real-life, but not so much in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You’re better off finding other tasks to do, like grinding iron or gold nuggets, visiting other players at their islands, fishing, or much more.