small hours
Deep night stretch
The small hours are the early morning hours after midnight, roughly from 1 to 4 a.m.—when the hour numbers are small.
The phrase implies lateness or sleeplessness: We talked into the small hours.
She finally finished the report in the small hours of the morning.
- crack of dawnEarliest morning light
- insomniaPersistent inability to rest
- sleepless nightNight without rest
- late nightTime near midnight
- quietLacking in sound
can't sleep · a.m. · solitude · midnight · vigil · early morning · nocturnal · graveyard shift · hush · dead of night · nighttime · sleeplessness · silence · night shift · burning the midnight oil · darkness · sunrise · lamplight
- nighttimemidnight, nightfall, night sky, nighttime, starry sky
- daypartsdawn, sunrise, morning, forenoon, midmorning
- hoursone o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock
- Timesmorning, afternoon, evening, night, noon
- late nightmidnight, night owl, night owls, insomnia, afterhours
- predawnfirst light, dawn, twilight, cockcrow, morning star