# Am I damaging my eyesight when I read by candlelight?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-damaging-my-eyesight-when-i-read-by-candlelight/384052>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 14, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-damaging-my-eyesight-when-i-read-by-candlelight/384052 "2006-12-14T01:28:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-damaging-my-eyesight-when-i-read-by-candlelight/384052/1 "2006-12-14T01:28:51Z")

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Hee hee! I love rhyming subject lines.

Every time that somebody learns that I read/do my homework by candle and oil-lamp light in my room, I automatically get told that I’m ruining my eyesight. I insist that the light is bright enough, but a lot of people seem to think that that’s either impossible or irrelevant. The latter class tend to see something inherently damaging in non-electric lighting, I guess.

My question is, am I actually hurting my eyes? I never feel them strained, I always feel that the light is bright enough, and have been doing it for nearly a year with no noticable loss of eyesight. Since I have glasses, I get my vision checked regularly, and there’s no more fading of vision than I had before I removed the incandescent lamp from my room.

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**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-damaging-my-eyesight-when-i-read-by-candlelight/384052/2 "2006-12-14T02:41:30Z")

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I remember reading that there’s nothing damaging about reading in low light (although it can be uncomfortable). Here’s a cite:

[http://www.kellogg.umich.edu/patientcare/conditions/faq.html#computers](http://www.kellogg.umich.edu/patientcare/conditions/faq.html#computers)

Unless of course your friends are right and there is something fundamentally different about candlelight as opposed to a light bulb. IANAO but I doubt that very much.