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How Many Night Driving Hours Do You Need?
You’ve been logging practice hours for months. Daytime total looks good. Then you check your night hours and realize you’re way behind.
This happens to almost every family. Night hours are the bottleneck.
The Quick Answer by State
Here’s how many nighttime driving hours your state requires before you can get your license:
| Night Hours Required | States |
|---|---|
| 15 hours | Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, Virginia |
| 10 hours | Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut (see note), Delaware, Florida, Georgia (see note), Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa (see note), Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon (see note), 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 |
| 0 hours | Arkansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oregon |
Wait — some states appear twice. That’s because the table above groups by the common “10 hour” tier, but Georgia actually requires 6, Connecticut requires 5, and Iowa requires 2. Oregon and three others require zero.
Let me be more precise:
15 Night Hours
- Louisiana
- Minnesota
- New York
- Virginia
10 Night Hours
Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
That’s about 36 states. 10 hours is the national default.
Under 10 Night Hours
- Georgia: 6 hours
- Connecticut: 5 hours
- Iowa: 2 hours
No Night Hour Requirement
- Arkansas
- Massachusetts
- Mississippi
- Oregon
These states still require total practice hours (except Arkansas and Mississippi, which don’t specify any hour requirements). They just don’t break out a separate night-driving minimum.
What Counts as “Night”?
This varies by state, and it matters more than you’d think.
Sunset to sunrise: Most states use this definition. The actual time changes by season and location. A drive at 5:30 PM counts as night in December but not in July.
Fixed clock times: A few states use specific times. New York defines night as “after 9 PM or after sunset, whichever comes later.” Some states use 7 PM or 8 PM as a fixed start time regardless of actual darkness.
The sunset-to-sunrise definition is the most common and most practical. If the sun is down, it’s night driving.
Why Night Hours Are Hard to Finish
Families procrastinate on night hours for obvious reasons. Nobody wants to do practice driving at 9 PM on a Tuesday when everyone’s tired. Morning and afternoon drives happen naturally — trips to school, errands, weekend outings. Night drives require deliberate effort.
Then winter arrives and the problem gets worse. Or rather, it gets better — but most families don’t realize it.
The Winter Shortcut
Here’s the single most useful piece of advice in this article: drive in winter.
In most of the US, the sun sets before 5 PM from late November through early February. That means a 5:30 PM drive to pick up dinner counts as night driving. A 6 PM trip to the store. A 4:45 PM drive home from an after-school activity.
Compare that to summer, when sunset happens at 8:30 PM or later. In June, you’d need to be driving at 9 PM for it to count.
If you start your permit in the fall, you can knock out most of your night hours during normal evening routines just by driving after dinner. No special late-night sessions needed.
Quick math: If you do three 30-minute drives per week during winter months (November through February), that’s roughly 6 hours per month. In two months, you’ve finished 10-12 night hours without ever staying out past 7 PM.
A Month-by-Month Strategy
Assuming a 6-month permit period with a 10-hour night requirement:
Month 1 (any season): Focus on daytime fundamentals. Get comfortable with the basics before adding the complexity of darkness.
Month 2-3: Start mixing in night drives. If it’s fall/winter, this is easy — just drive during normal evening hours. If it’s summer, plan a few drives after 8:30 PM each week.
Month 4-5: You should be at 6-8 night hours by now. Keep a steady pace.
Month 6: Finish up any remaining hours. Don’t leave this to the last week.
Tips for Better Night Driving Practice
Start with familiar routes. Your teen’s first night drive shouldn’t be on unfamiliar roads. Drive routes they already know so the only new variable is darkness.
Practice headlight management. When to use low beams vs. high beams. How to flip off high beams when another car approaches. How bright headlights affect rear-view mirrors (and how to adjust them).
Work on scanning. At night, pedestrians and cyclists are harder to see. Practice actively scanning sidewalks, crosswalks, and shoulders. Point them out before your teen notices them.
Drive in different conditions. A clear night is different from a rainy night. A well-lit suburban street is different from a dark rural road. Mix it up over the course of your practice period.
Avoid fatigue. If your teen is exhausted, skip the practice drive. Drowsy driving is dangerous for experienced drivers, and worse for beginners. A 20-minute alert drive beats a 45-minute drowsy one.
What If You Don’t Finish in Time?
If your permit is about to expire and you’re short on night hours, you’ve got a problem. You can’t take the road test without meeting your state’s hour requirements (in states that verify logs).
Some states barely check the log. Others verify it line by line. Don’t gamble on which type your state is.
If you’re behind, schedule night drives every day for the next few weeks. Short sessions are fine — even 15-minute drives count. Four 15-minute drives equal one hour.
Track Night Hours Separately from Day One
The biggest mistake families make: logging total hours without tracking day vs. night from the beginning. You end up with 45 hours logged and no idea how many were at night.
Moda splits day and night automatically using sunset data for your location. Every session gets tagged correctly — no manual categorization, no guessing about whether that 6:30 PM drive in March counted. Your night hour total is always accurate and always visible.