Method for operating a vehicle parking light (2) of a motor vehicle (1, 18-22) parked at a geographical location, which is switched between an on state and an off state by a
light control unit (6) at least one wake-up time (t) which lies in a night phase (9) between a
sunset (4) and a
sunrise (3), where A
timer (7) wakes the
light control unit (6) and at least one light-sensitive sensor (8) from a
sleep mode at at least one wake-up time (t) to check a switching condition for switching the vehicle's parking lights (2) and then reactivate the
sleep mode, wherein the switching condition includes the
light control unit (6) switching on the vehicle's parking lights (2) when the brightness falls below a certain value measured by the at least one light-sensitive sensor (8) and / or switching off the vehicle's parking lights (2) when the brightness exceeds the certain value, wherein the
timer (7) sets the at least one wake-up time (t) based on calendar data for
sunrise (3) and
sunset (4) from a data storage device (5, 5') and the
timer (7) limits the wake-up to the night phase (9). characterized by the fact that The switching condition for switching the vehicle's parking lights (2) includes the requirement that the light
control unit (6) detects at least one object (17, 22) by means of at least one
radar sensor or at least one camera, which acts as a shield for the motor vehicle (1, 18-22), and then checks the switching condition only for the direction in which the shield is missing, and / or the switching condition specifies at least one parameter of a battery (12) of the motor vehicle (1, 18-22) which describes a
state of charge of the battery (12), and if the at least one parameter falls below a respective threshold value, the vehicle's parking light (2) is switched off or not switched on and / or the timer (7) is caused to stop waking up at the at least one wake-up time (t).