Yes, you can drive at night with a permit in Louisiana. There’s no curfew at the permit stage. But Louisiana requires 15 supervised night hours before you’re eligible for a license. That’s one of the highest night hour requirements in the country. Only four states require 15 (Louisiana, New York, Minnesota, and Virginia), versus the typical 10.

That 15 is 30% of Louisiana’s 50 total required hours. Nearly one in three hours you log needs to be after dark.

When Does “Night” Start in Louisiana?

Louisiana uses sunset to sunrise. No fixed clock time. The window is tied to the sun. In New Orleans, sunset lands around 5:15 PM in December and pushes to about 8:00 PM in late June. That’s a nearly 3-hour shift across the year.

A 6:30 PM drive in January is night. The same drive in July is not even close. The window moves daily, by roughly one to two minutes each day.

If you’re keeping a paper log, you’d need to look up the actual sunset time for your parish before each session. Logging a drive as night when it started 15 minutes before sunset is the kind of error that creates problems when your log gets reviewed.

Curfew Rules

Louisiana has no curfew for permit holders. You can drive at any hour, including 2 AM, as long as a licensed supervisor who’s at least 21 is in the passenger seat.

Curfew restrictions in Louisiana apply to intermediate license holders (ages 16–17), not to permit-stage drivers. So the only rule at the permit stage is: supervisor present, always.

Getting Your 15 Night Hours Done

15 hours over a 6-month hold period means you need 2.5 night hours per month. That works out to about one 35-to-40-minute drive per week, every week, for six months straight. Miss a few weeks and you’re scrambling at the end.

The math is unforgiving if you procrastinate. Skip the first month, and you’re trying to fit 15 hours into 5 months, which requires 3 hours per month instead of 2.5. Not impossible, but the margin disappears.

Some practical ways to hit 15 without it feeling like a grind:

Make the commute count. If your teen can come along for pickup, errands, or a school event after sunset, log it. Even a 25-minute drive is progress.
Weekend after-dinner drives. 8 PM in late summer still counts after sunset in southern Louisiana. That’s prime time for a relaxed driving session that doesn’t require staying up late.
Winter is the easiest month. In December, sunset before 5:30 PM means any drive after school is a night drive. If your teen is doing their permit year in the fall and winter, front-load as many night hours as possible.

Fifteen hours is a lot, but it’s also a real skill investment. Night driving is objectively harder: reduced contrast, glare from oncoming headlights, fatigue, unfamiliar roads. More hours at night means a more prepared driver.

Louisiana Permit Requirements

Requirement	Details
Total supervised hours	50
Night hours	15
Night definition	Sunset to sunrise
Permit curfew	None
Minimum permit age	15
Permit hold period	6 months
Supervisor minimum age	21
Driver’s ed required	Yes

Practical Tips

Start logging night hours in the first week. Not month two, not “once they’ve got the basics.” Week one. Louisiana’s 15-hour requirement is the highest in the region. You want as much runway as possible.

Know the difference between twilight and night. Louisiana’s definition is sunset, not “dark.” Civil twilight (the first ~30 minutes after sunset) still counts. If the sun is down, you’re logging night time. But if the sun hasn’t technically set yet, that drive doesn’t qualify no matter how dim it looks outside.

Weather matters more at night. Louisiana gets heavy rain and fog. A supervised night drive in light rain, with an adult coach in the car, is worth doing before your teen encounters it alone. The controlled exposure during the permit year is the whole point.

Log accurately. The DMV in Louisiana will ask for a driving log at the road test. If night hours are missing or misclassified, you may not qualify.

Moda tracks sunset for your GPS location and tags each session automatically. Your running night-hour count stays accurate without any manual lookups.

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

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