Most states require 10 supervised hours at night. Four require 15 — New York, Minnesota, Louisiana and Virginia — and eight publish no night minimum at all. Only six states define what “night” actually means: California counts 11 PM to 5 AM, Nebraska and New York count sunset to sunrise, Utah and Virginia count after sunset, and Wisconsin simply says darkness. Everywhere else, use actual darkness and log it honestly.
Night driving requirements by state
Night hours are almost always a subset of the total, not an addition to it — 10 of Ohio's 50, 15 of New York's 50. Click any state for its full requirements, official form, and supervision rules.
| State | Night hours required | How the state defines “night” |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | None published | No state definition — ALEA publishes no night minimum |
| Alaska | 10 hours in “progressively more challenging conditions” | Not a night-specific rule — darkness and adverse weather both count |
| Arizona | 10 of 30 | Not defined by the MVD — use actual darkness |
| Arkansas | None published | No state definition |
| California | 10 of 50 | 11 PM to 5 AM — a specific clock window set by the DMV |
| Colorado | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Connecticut | None published | No state definition |
| Delaware | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| District of Columbia | 10 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Florida | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Georgia | 6 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Hawaii | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Idaho | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Illinois | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness. Permit curfew: 10 PM Sun–Thu, 11 PM Fri–Sat |
| Indiana | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Iowa | 2 for the intermediate license, 2 more for the full license | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Kansas | 10 — inside the 25-hour stage at age 15 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Kentucky | 10 of 60 | Not defined — use actual darkness. Permit curfew: midnight–6 AM |
| Louisiana | 15 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Maine | 10 of 70 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Maryland | 10 of 60 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Massachusetts | 10 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Michigan | 10 of 50 — 2 of them before Segment 2 driver education | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Minnesota | 15 — unchanged by the parent awareness class | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Mississippi | None published | No state definition |
| Missouri | 10 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Montana | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Nebraska | 10 of 50 | Sunset to sunrise — stated in those words |
| Nevada | 10 of 50 (20 on the 100-hour track) | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| New Hampshire | 10 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| New Jersey | None published | No state definition. Permit night restriction commonly 11:01 PM–5 AM |
| New Mexico | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| New York | 15 of 50 | After sunset and before sunrise |
| North Carolina | 10 for Level 2, plus 6 more for Level 3 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| North Dakota | None published separately | Night is part of the required “variety of conditions” |
| Ohio | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Oklahoma | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Oregon | None published | No state definition — surprising given the 100-hour total |
| Pennsylvania | 10 of 65, plus 5 hours in poor weather | Not defined — use actual darkness. Permit curfew: midnight–5 AM |
| Rhode Island | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| South Carolina | 10 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| South Dakota | 10, plus inclement-weather hours | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Tennessee | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Texas | 10 of 30 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Utah | 10 of 40 | After sunset |
| Vermont | 10 of 40 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Virginia | 15 of 45 | After sunset |
| Washington | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| West Virginia | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
| Wisconsin | 10 of 50 | Darkness — worded literally, not a clock range |
| Wyoming | 10 of 50 | Not defined — use actual darkness |
Requirements change and most states do not publish a clock definition of night. Confirm the current rule with your licensing agency before your road test. Where a state publishes no definition, log actual darkness — it is the reading no examiner will argue with.
The six states that actually define night
If you are in one of these, the definition matters, because a drive that feels like night may not count:
- California — 11 PM to 5 AM. The strictest window in the country by a distance. A 7 PM December drive in Sacramento is pitch dark and does not count toward the 10 night hours. Californians consistently underestimate how awkward this is: it means ten hours of driving that all start at or after 11 PM.
- New York — sunset to sunrise. Fifteen hours, on a lookup-able standard. An 8 PM drive in December counts; the same drive in June does not.
- Nebraska — sunset to sunrise, stated in those words. You can check the exact time for any date and know precisely whether a drive counted.
- Utah — after sunset. Cleaner than most states' unqualified “night”. In Salt Lake City that is anything after about 5:05 PM in December and after 9 PM in late June.
- Virginia — after sunset. Fifteen of the 45 hours, a third of the total, on a specific standard.
- Wisconsin — darkness. Refreshingly literal: not a clock range, just actual dark.
Everywhere else, the agency publishes a number without a definition. The universally safe reading is between sunset and sunrise, and there is no state where logging genuine darkness will get you into trouble.
How to actually collect night hours
This is the requirement families most often come up short on, and the reason is scheduling rather than effort.
- Bank them between October and February. Across most of the country, December darkness starts between 4:15 and 5:20 PM — the drive home from practice already counts. In June the same hour means keeping a fifteen-year-old out past 9 PM, repeatedly, on school nights.
- Use the drives you were making anyway. Ten hours is roughly twenty half-hour evening drives. The trip home from a game, the run to pick up dinner, the drive back from a friend's house.
- Check your permit's own curfew first. Pennsylvania's midnight–5 AM, Kentucky's midnight–6 AM, Illinois's 10 PM weeknight limit, Florida's daylight-only first three months. The practical window is often narrower than it looks.
- Tag night drives at the time. Not in April, from memory, about a February evening. This is exactly what condition tags in a driving log are for.
- Practice the things that are actually different at night, not just the same route in the dark: headlight glare from oncoming traffic, judging distance and speed with no depth cues, unlit rural roads, animals at the roadside, wet asphalt reflecting light, and reading unlit signs late.
- Check the night subtotal monthly. It is the number that quietly falls behind while the total looks healthy.
Night driving is not paperwork. Per mile driven, the hours after dark are where new drivers are most at risk — which is exactly why nearly every state carved out a separate minimum rather than trusting the total to cover it.
Tracking the night subtotal
Every state that requires night hours requires them as a separate number, which is the part a single running total cannot give you. PermitReady's supervised driving hours log tags each drive with the conditions that applied — night, highway, rain, city streets, parking, heavy traffic — and keeps the subtotals alongside the total, so the number you copy onto Pennsylvania's DL-180C or Ohio's affidavit is one you did not have to reconstruct. It works offline, needs no account, and entries can be backdated if you started late.
Honest limits: no automatic drive detection, no GPS, iPhone and iPad only, and it does not generate a signed state form.
Frequently asked questions
How many night driving hours does my state require?
Ten is by far the most common figure. Four states ask for 15 — New York, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Virginia — and Georgia asks for only 6. Iowa asks for 2 at the intermediate stage and 2 more before the full license. Eight states publish no night minimum at all: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, and Alaska (which asks for 10 hours in challenging conditions instead). The table on this page lists all 51.
What counts as "night" for driving hours?
It depends on your state, and most states never say. Six are specific: California counts 11 PM to 5 AM, Nebraska and New York count sunset to sunrise, Utah and Virginia count after sunset, and Wisconsin says darkness. Everywhere else there is no published clock definition, so the safe reading is actual darkness — after sunset and before sunrise. If your state uses a clock window, an early-evening December drive may not qualify even though it is fully dark.
When is the best time of year to get night hours?
Late fall through winter, without question. In most of the country December darkness starts between 4:15 and 5:20 PM, which turns an ordinary drive home from practice into a night hour. In June the same hour requires keeping a teenager out past 9 PM. Families who leave night hours until spring end up doing them the hard way, and in northern states the difference is dramatic: Portland, Maine is dark by 4:05 PM in December and light past 8:20 PM in June.
Can night hours count toward the total hours too?
In almost every state, yes — night hours are a subset of the total, not an addition to it. Ten of Ohio's 50, 15 of New York's 50, 10 of Pennsylvania's 65. Pennsylvania's five poor-weather hours are also inside the 65. Iowa and North Carolina are the notable structural exceptions, because their requirements are split across licensing stages. Check your state's row and page before assuming.
What if my permit has a night curfew?
Several states restrict when permit holders may drive at all, which narrows the window for night practice. Pennsylvania permits carry a midnight–5 AM restriction, Kentucky midnight–6 AM, Illinois 10 PM on weeknights and 11 PM at weekends, New Jersey commonly 11:01 PM–5 AM, and Florida learner's licenses are daylight-only for the first three months and then until 10 PM. In practice this means night hours happen in the early evening, which is where they should happen anyway — and it is another reason winter is the efficient season.
Do I have to prove which hours were at night?
You have to certify them. Several states ask for the night figure as a separate number on a signed form: Pennsylvania's DL-180C wants total, night, and poor-weather hours listed separately, and Ohio's Fifty-Hour Affidavit is signed under oath. Nobody checks a timestamp, but somebody signs their name. Tag night drives as they happen — reconstructing which February evening drives ended after dark is genuinely hard in April.
Related
- Total supervised driving hours by state
- What counts as a supervised driving hour
- How to log supervised driving hours
- What to practice during supervised hours
- A parent's guide to supervising a teen driver
- Supervised hours calculator
Important Notice
- PermitReady is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by any DMV, RMV, BMV, DPS, or state agency.
- No state has formally approved or rejected PermitReady's driving log as a substitute for an official state form. Always confirm with your state agency what log format they accept.
- Requirements shown on this page are approximate and change. Verify current rules with your state licensing agency before your road test.