Night driving hours: what counts and how many
Most states want a share of the supervised hours after dark. Here is how night is defined, how it varies, and how to log a drive that starts in daylight.
Crash rates for new drivers rise after dark, so most states require that some of the supervised practice hours happen at night. The number is usually 10 of 50. A few states ask for 15, several for fewer, and a handful have no night minimum at all.
The free app marks day and night from your location's sunset, automaticallyWhen does night start for the log?
States define night in their own words. The common patterns:
- Sunset to sunrise. The simplest rule, and the default most forms imply when they just say "night".
- 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise. Ohio and Vermont use this: twilight does not count.
- 30 minutes before sunset to 30 minutes after sunrise. Maryland counts the twilight both ways, so night starts earlier.
- A clock window. Some states' nighttime driving restrictions use fixed hours (for example 11 PM to 5 AM), but those are curfews for the permit holder, not the definition of a night practice hour. Do not confuse the two.
Because sunset moves by minutes every day and by hours across the year, the only reliable way to know is to look up the sunset for the date and place of the drive. The app does that from your location; on paper, write the clock time and check it later.
A drive that crosses sunset
Day part
From the start of the drive until the moment night begins under your state's rule. Logged as day minutes.
Night part
From that moment until the car is parked. Logged as night minutes. One drive, two numbers on the row.
Some state forms have one row per drive with a Day or Night checkbox and no way to split. In that case, record the drive as two rows with the sunset time as the boundary, or end the drive at sunset and start a new one. Both are honest; a single row marked Night for a drive that was 80 percent daylight is not.
Night hours by state
Minimum night hours for a driver under 18, grouped. Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, Virginia ask for the most at 15.
| Night hours | States |
|---|---|
| 15 hours | Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, Virginia |
| 10 hours | Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming |
| 6 hours | Georgia |
| 5 hours | Connecticut |
| 2 hours | Iowa |
| None required | Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon |
Some states count bad-weather hours together with night (Alaska), or lower the night minimum on a reduced path (Arizona, Minnesota). The state page has the details and the official source.
Getting the night hours done
- Winter is your friend. In December the sun sets before 5 PM in most of the country; a drive home from practice is a night drive.
- Start with familiar roads. The same route the teen knows in daylight, after dark, teaches glare and headlight judgment without new navigation.
- Keep one supervisor rule. Hawaii, for example, requires a parent or guardian specifically between 11 PM and 5 AM. Check the supervisor rules on your state page.
- Do not leave them for last. Ten night hours is twenty evening drives of 30 minutes. Spread them across the permit period.