What Counts as Night Driving in Alaska?

Yes, you can drive at night on an Alaska learner’s permit. There’s no curfew, and night hours count from sunset to sunrise.

Alaska requires 10 night hours as part of your 40-hour total. Nowhere in the country does the sunset window shift more dramatically by season. In Anchorage, “night” can start at 3:40 PM in December or barely arrive at all in June.

What counts as night in Alaska

Night is sunset to sunrise. No fixed clock time.

The swing in Alaska is unlike any other state. Anchorage sunset in late December: around 3:40 PM. The sun is down before most people finish their workday. By mid-June, sunset pushes past 11:30 PM, and even then, astronomical twilight persists. There are nights in June where it never truly gets dark.

Fairbanks is more extreme. Around the summer solstice, the sun sets just before midnight and rises again before 3 AM. You can have a “night drive” in theory, but 65 days of midnight sun makes the window almost nothing.

Juneau and the Southeast panhandle are different again. Coastal weather means overcast skies compress the useful light even in summer. A cloudy 7 PM in Juneau in March can feel fully dark.

The practical implication: if you’re in Anchorage and it’s December, you can log night hours at 4 PM. If it’s June, you’re waiting past 11 PM. Plan around your local calendar, not a generic sunset time.

Permit curfews in Alaska

None. Alaska doesn’t restrict what hours a permit holder can drive. The only requirement is a qualifying supervisor (someone 21 or older) in the front seat.

That 21+ supervisor requirement is worth noting for Alaska families, where it’s common for teens to start driving at 14. That’s one of the youngest permit ages in the country. A 14-year-old with a permit still needs a 21-year-old in the car, which rules out most older siblings.

Getting your night hours done

10 out of 40 hours must be at night. That’s 25% of your total. Start logging them immediately.

The instinct is to front-load daytime driving: easier to schedule, less stressful. Then night hours become a problem at the 5-month mark. Don’t do that.

If you’re starting in fall or winter, you’re in the best position possible. Anchorage’s December and January sunsets before 4 PM mean you can knock out a night drive every evening without staying up late. A 25-minute loop after dinner, twice a week, is 4 hours a month.

One thing Alaska has that no other state does: inclement weather driving can count toward both night hours and adverse conditions at the same time. A snowy drive after 4 PM in December in Anchorage? That’s a night hour AND an adverse conditions hour in one trip. Log it correctly and it does double duty.

Alaska permit requirements

Requirement	Details
Total supervised hours	40
Night hours required	10
Day hours	30
Night definition	Sunset to sunrise
Minimum permit age	14
Permit hold period	6 months
Supervisor minimum age	21
Inclement weather hours	Can double-count as night hours
Driver’s ed required	No

Practical tips for Alaska

The double-count rule is real. Alaska allows inclement weather drives to count toward both required categories. Rain, snow, ice, fog: if conditions qualify and it’s after sunset, you’re earning two types of hours at once. Keep your log accurate so you can claim both.

Fairbanks and the midnight sun. If you’re in the interior and trying to finish night hours in May or June, you may need to schedule later than feels reasonable. The sun doesn’t set. Either push night drives to late summer/fall, or accept the midnight schedule for a few weeks.

14 is young. Alaska’s permit age is lower than 46 other states. A 14-year-old working through 40 hours of supervised driving needs a 21+ adult available regularly. For families where both parents work or travel, that means building a consistent schedule before the permit is even issued.

The Anchorage December window is your friend. Sunset at 3:40 PM means every after-school drive is a night drive from November through January. If you live near Anchorage and your teen gets their permit in fall, you can realistically finish all 10 night hours before February without a single late-night drive.

Sunset in Alaska moves faster than anywhere else in the lower 48, and the gap between December and June is measured in hours, not minutes. Tracking it accurately by hand means looking up your local sunset every single day. Moda does that automatically, using GPS to tag each drive as day or night in real time.

For full Alaska permit requirements, see our Alaska permit hours guide.

Download: Moda on the App Store

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