What Counts as Night Driving in Indiana?

Yes, you can drive at night with an Indiana learner’s permit. 10 of your 50 required hours have to happen between sunset and sunrise. There’s no permit curfew. A licensed supervisor who’s at least 25 must be in the car.

That 25+ supervisor requirement is stricter than most states. Indiana and Delaware are two of the few states that go above 21. A 23-year-old older sibling doesn’t qualify. A 24-year-old college student who offers to help doesn’t qualify. Most parents of 15-year-olds meet the threshold easily, but if you’re planning around a young relative, verify their age before you build a schedule around them. Indiana’s BMV form 2009 is also required for the official log. A generic spreadsheet or notes app won’t cut it at the road test.

What “Night” Means in Indiana

Indiana defines night as sunset to sunrise, no fixed clock time. When the sun sets, night hours start. When it rises, they stop.

Indianapolis has an interesting sunset pattern. Because Indiana sits on the western edge of the Eastern time zone, it gets some of the latest summer sunsets in the country for its latitude. In late June, sunset in Indianapolis falls around 9:15 PM, noticeably later than Chicago, which is west of Indianapolis but on Central time. In December, sunset comes around 5:20 PM.

That’s a swing of nearly 4 hours between the shortest and longest days. A 7:00 PM drive counts as night in January and still has over 2 hours of daylight left in June.

No Permit Curfew

Indiana has no nighttime curfew for permit holders. You can practice at 11 PM if your 25+ supervisor is available. The curfew restriction comes with the license: a provisional license holder under 18 can’t drive between 10 PM and 5 AM unless there’s a parent or guardian in the car. That’s a post-license restriction, not a permit restriction. During the permit phase, the clock doesn’t care what time it is.

Getting Your 10 Night Hours Done

50 hours over 6 months is about 2 hours per week. For the 10 night hours, one consistent evening session per week for 10 weeks handles it. Done by week 10, you spend the back half of your permit period focused only on the remaining day hours.

Indiana’s December-through-February window is the best time to knock out night hours. With sunset falling before 5:30 PM, any drive that runs into early evening automatically logs as night. A session that starts at 6:00 PM in January is already dark. No staying out late.

The summer situation is the opposite. That 9:15 PM late June sunset means night driving in summer requires pushing well past the dinner hour. If your permit starts in spring, have a plan for getting night hours during the long days. Some families deliberately frontload night hours in the first autumn or winter months, then cruise through spring and summer entirely on day hours.

Indiana Permit Requirements

Requirement	Details
Total supervised hours	50
Night hours required	10
Day hours required	40
Night definition	Sunset to sunrise
Minimum permit age	15
Permit hold period	6 months
Supervisor minimum age	25
Driver’s ed required	Yes
Official log form	BMV 2009
Permit curfew	None

Practical Tips

Use BMV form 2009. Indiana requires the official driving log form, not a generic record. Download it from the Indiana BMV website and fill it in from day one. Bringing the wrong documentation to the road test creates delays.

The 25+ rule has no exceptions. A very mature 24-year-old doesn’t qualify. A licensed 25-year-old who got their license six months ago does qualify. Age is the only filter. Number of years driving doesn’t factor in.

Indiana’s summer sunsets are late. Later than you might expect given the state’s latitude. If you get your permit in March or April, you’ll have roughly 3 to 4 months before those long summer evenings push your night window past 9 PM. Get the night hours done in spring before the days stretch out.

Vary your night routes. Indiana has a wide range of road types: Indianapolis interstates, mid-size city streets in Fort Wayne or South Bend, and rural two-lane roads in between. Each one presents different night driving challenges. A driver who’s only practiced night driving in residential neighborhoods will feel it at the road test.

Track twilight carefully. Civil twilight (the gray period after the sun dips but before it’s fully dark) doesn’t count as night. Official sunset is the cutoff. Don’t log the 20-minute window before it as night time on your BMV form.

Moda records the exact sunset time for your GPS location at the start of each session, then categorizes every minute of driving accordingly. Your BMV 2009 data is accurate, auditable, and ready when you need it.

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

Download: Moda on the App Store

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