The 3am Report 2026
What new moms do in the middle of the night
At 3am, moms on Beacon send more hugs than at any other hour of the day.
See the data
| Hour (local time) | Share of all hugs and waves |
|---|---|
| 12am to 1am | 7.6% |
| 1am to 2am | 8.7% |
| 2am to 3am | 10.0% |
| 3am to 4am | 11.1% |
| 4am to 5am | 9.6% |
| 5am to 6am | 6.1% |
| 6am to 7am | 3.3% |
| 7am to 8am | 1.5% |
| 8am to 9am | 0.9% |
| 9am to 10am | 0.7% |
| 10am to 11am | 0.7% |
| 11am to 12pm | 0.6% |
| 12pm to 1pm | 0.6% |
| 1pm to 2pm | 0.6% |
| 2pm to 3pm | 0.6% |
| 3pm to 4pm | 0.6% |
| 4pm to 5pm | 0.8% |
| 5pm to 6pm | 0.6% |
| 6pm to 7pm | 0.9% |
| 7pm to 8pm | 2.5% |
| 8pm to 9pm | 9.0% |
| 9pm to 10pm | 8.7% |
| 10pm to 11pm | 8.4% |
| 11pm to 12am | 6.3% |
- 46.9% of all hugs and waves are sent between midnight and 5am.
- 1,540 hugs on a typical night between midnight and 5am (the median night), from about 450 moms.
The night shift is the newest moms
81% of beacons lit between midnight and 5am come from moms whose youngest child is under 3 months old.
Most of Beacon happens after dark: 69% of beacon lightings happen between 8pm and 5am. On a typical night, about 1,130 moms light their beacon.
With a newborn, the night almost always includes a feed
8 in 10 nights with a baby under 3 months include a feed between midnight and 5am, with a median of 2 feeds between 10pm and 6am.
0 to 3 months: 3,289 nights from 234 babies. 3 to 6 months: 1,828 nights from 85 babies. Babies 6 months and older: fewer than 50 babies, not reported.
15% of logged feeds start between midnight and 5am. That's nearly one in six, in hours meant for sleep.
Bottle: 13.9%. Breastfeeding: 16.8%. Pumping: 15.7%.
It matches what moms told us the night before Mother's Day: 79% of those awake at 3am were feeding a baby. Read that survey
At night, other moms answer faster
8.9 minutes, overnight
15.9 minutes, during the day
When a mom posts a Message of Hope between midnight and 5am, half of the first replies from other moms arrive within 8.9 minutes. Among posts that got a reply (54% of overnight posts), July 8 to October 6, 2026.
One in three check-ins after dark is low or hard
33% of mood check-ins between 6pm and 5am are rated "low" or "hard", compared with 28% during the day. Evenings are a little heavier than the small hours.
If tonight is one of those nights, call or text 988, or the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262, any time.
How we did this
- Who's counted: moms with a Beacon login account. We excluded system, team, and test accounts, and dads' accounts. Test accounts were found by pattern, so a handful may be missed.
- Time: every timestamp is converted to the mom's own local time, from her device's time zone where available, otherwise her state or country.
- Privacy: only totals, shares, and medians. No result describes fewer than 50 people, nothing is broken down below country level, and no message text was read.
- Periods: beacons, feeds, and mood check-ins from July 11 to October 8, 2026; hugs and waves from August 10 to October 8, 2026; replies from July 8 to October 6, 2026.
- Feeding nights: a night counts only if a feed was logged both that evening (6 to 10pm) and the next morning (6 to 10am), so gaps in logging aren't mistaken for a baby sleeping through.
Limitations
These are Beacon users, not all new moms. Feeding numbers come from moms who choose to log feeds. A child's age is what moms told us when they joined. This first edition covers about two to three months.
For journalists
| Busiest hour for sending hugs | 3am to 4am (11.1% of all hugs and waves) |
|---|---|
| Hugs and waves sent midnight to 5am | 46.9% of 186,905 |
| Hugs on a typical night, midnight to 5am | 1,542 (median) from 451 moms |
| Median time to first reply, overnight vs daytime | 8.9 vs 15.9 minutes |
| Newborn (0 to 3 months) nights with a feed midnight to 5am | 81.5% |
| Logged feeds that start midnight to 5am | 15.4% |
| Overnight beacons lit by moms of babies under 3 months | 81.2% |
| Mood check-ins rated low or hard, after dark vs daytime | 33.1% vs 28.1% |
Please cite as: Beacon, The 3am Report 2026, beaconpostpartum.com/research/3am-report-2026/. For interviews, chart images, or questions about the method, email [email protected].
