Yes, you can drive at night with a permit in North Dakota, at any hour, with a licensed driver (18+) present. North Dakota has no permit holder curfew.

North Dakota’s night definition

North Dakota defines night as sunset to sunrise. No fixed clock time. When the sun goes down, night starts. When it comes up, night ends.

In Bismarck, sunset ranges from about 4:45 PM in December to 9:30 PM in late June. That’s close to a 5-hour swing, one of the widest seasonal ranges in the continental US, given how far north the state sits. A drive at 6 PM counts as night in November. The same 6 PM drive in July is squarely daytime.

This makes season matter a lot. December gives you a multi-hour night window in the early evening. June compresses it to nearly nothing before 10 PM.

The hold-until-16 rule

North Dakota allows permits at age 14, one of the youngest permit ages in the country. But getting the permit at 14 doesn’t mean you’ll have your license at 14 and a half.

The hold period is 6 months or until age 16, whichever is longer. A 14-year-old who earns their permit and logs all 50 hours in 5 months still can’t test for a license until their 16th birthday. The permit period effectively runs until they turn 16, no matter how efficiently they complete the hours.

For a 15-year-old getting their permit close to their 16th birthday, the 6-month rule is the binding constraint. For a 14-year-old starting early, it’s age that controls the timeline.

Driver’s ed is required for anyone under 16, which is essentially everyone who gets a permit at 14 or 15. Factor in the time to complete driver’s ed before you even start the permit clock.

50 hours with an 18-year-old supervisor

The 50 total hours breaks down to 40 day and 10 night. What’s distinct here is the supervisor age requirement: North Dakota only requires the supervising driver to be 18, compared to the much more common 21 in states like New York and Pennsylvania.

That matters practically. A college-age sibling can supervise. An 18-year-old friend with a full license can legally sit in the passenger seat. Most states lock this down to adults (25+, or at minimum 21), so the 18-year-old rule gives ND families more flexibility in who can help.

North Dakota permit requirements

Requirement	Details
Total supervised hours	50
Night hours	10
Night definition	Sunset to sunrise
Permit age	14
Hold period	6 months or until age 16 (whichever is longer)
Supervisor minimum age	18
Driver’s ed	Required under 16

Practical tips for North Dakota

Start in fall or winter for night hours. Sunset at 4:45 PM in December means a 5:15 PM drive after school is already a night hour. It doesn’t feel like night. The drive home from school still has that early-dark winter feel. But it counts. Use this window to knock out all 10 night hours before the end of January.

Summer nights are late. In Bismarck, the sun doesn’t set until 9:30 PM in late June. If you’re trying to log night hours in summer, you’re looking at drives that start after 9:30 PM. With no curfew, that’s legal, but it’s not practical for most families during the school year.

The 18-year-old supervisor rule changes your options. If there’s a sibling or older friend who can supervise, use them. Spreading the driving across multiple supervisors makes it easier to get sessions in regularly.

14-year-olds: start early, but understand the timeline. Even if you complete 50 hours in 7 months, you’re still waiting until 16 for the license. This isn’t wasted time. More hours means better driving skills. But don’t expect the permit clock to unlock things faster than age will.

Log with specific times. Sunset shifts by a few minutes every day in ND’s extreme latitudes. A drive that starts at 5 PM in mid-November barely catches sunset; a 5 PM drive in late November is fully after sunset. Recording start and end times precisely is the only way to know what counts.

Tracking

Since North Dakota’s night hours are sunset-based, the exact cutoff moves every single day. In a state with 5 hours of seasonal swing in sunset time, this isn’t a minor detail. It’s the difference between counting a session as night or not.

Moda calculates sunset for your GPS location automatically. Every session gets tagged correctly as night or day based on actual sunset data, not estimates.

Download: Moda on the App Store

For full North Dakota permit requirements, see our North Dakota permit hours guide.

Stop manually tracking hours. Moda logs driving automatically.

Auto-detects night driving, exports DMV forms, and syncs across family phones.