Yes, you can drive at night with a Virginia learner permit — and you have to log more night hours than almost anywhere else. Virginia requires 15 night hours out of 45 total. No permit curfew, just a supervised-hours requirement and a sunset-based clock.

What “Night” Means in Virginia

Virginia defines night as sunset to sunrise. No fixed clock time like 9 PM or 10 PM. The sun sets, night starts.

In Richmond, that’s about 4:55 PM in late December and 8:25 PM in late June. A 6 PM drive in November is a night hour. That same 6 PM drive in July is not. The window shifts every day, and it matters because you need 15 of them.

Paper logs that only record the clock time can’t tell you whether a drive qualified. You’d need to cross-reference sunset times manually for every single session.

Curfew Rules

Virginia doesn’t restrict nighttime driving for permit holders. Drive at any hour, as long as a licensed supervisor age 21 or older is in the car. The supervision requirement handles the safety restriction — there’s no separate curfew layer on top.

Getting Your 15 Night Hours Done

Virginia’s 15-night-hour requirement puts it in rare company. Only New York, Minnesota, and Louisiana require the same — most states stop at 10. That means 33% of all your supervised practice has to happen after sunset.

Over a 9-month hold period, that’s 5 hours per month total, including about 1.7 night hours per month. Two or three 30-45 minute drives after dinner each month handles it. Miss a couple months and you’re scrambling at the end.

The math is more forgiving in winter. Richmond’s December sunset at 4:55 PM means a 5:15 PM drive counts. Early evenings in November, December, and January can be productive night sessions without anyone staying up past 9.

By June, sunset is past 8:30 PM. If you save all your night hours for summer, you’re waiting until 8:30 to start a drive that should feel routine by now. Start in fall. Start in winter. Let Virginia’s geography work for you.

Virginia is a state where night driving experience actually matters. I-95 through Northern Virginia is chaotic at night. Richmond’s downtown grid, Route 50 through Fairfax: these are busy roads, not quiet parking lots. The 15-hour requirement isn’t arbitrary. It reflects what a new driver actually needs to be ready for.

Virginia Permit Requirements

Requirement	Details
Total supervised hours	45
Night hours	15
Night definition	Sunset to sunrise
Minimum permit age	15½
Permit hold period	9 months
Supervisor minimum age	21
Driver’s ed	Required (under 18)
Permit curfew	None

Practical Tips

Don’t treat night hours as a separate project. Integrate them from the start. If 33% of your hours need to be at night, build that ratio into every month. One out of every three drives should happen after sunset.

Target fall and winter for night volume. October through February gives you the earliest sunsets. A 5:30 PM drive in December is a legitimate night session. Use that window hard — it disappears in March.

Northern Virginia is its own challenge. If you’re practicing around DC suburbs, night driving here means real traffic, complex interchanges, and aggressive drivers. Start with suburban roads after 8 PM on weekdays. Save the beltway for when the skill base is solid.

Rural Virginia at night is different. Shenandoah Valley roads, mountain switchbacks, deer crossings — if your teen will eventually drive in these conditions, practice them. The 15-hour requirement gives you enough time to diversify the experience.

Tracking whether each drive qualified as night requires knowing the exact sunset time for that date and location. A log that says “6:45 PM” doesn’t help without that context. Moda pulls real-time sunset data from your GPS location and marks every session automatically.

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

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