I'm trying to fix my setup to allow myself to read my physical book collection at night time. The current issue is that I am unable to control light in such a way that I'd be able to see my book, but not bother others trying to sleep in my house. I sleep alone in my room with the door closed, but apparently the light that leaks out the cracks in my door is enough to keep my parents across the hall awake. I've tried putting a towel in front of the gap on the bottom, but thats apparently not enough to contain a higher powered light source like my lamp. I've also tried using flashlights, but it's physically painful trying to hold those in position for as many hours as I'd like to read while containing the light. Does anyone have any lighting solutions I could try? Something I don't have to hold up like a lamp, but not be so bright as to illuminate the cracks in my door? Thanks.
You can get plenty of low power lamps. Alternatively you could get a headlamp, it’s basically a flashlight strapped to your head if you didn’t know.
I tried my headlamp, but it causes a bit of strain on my forehead after a few hours of use, also its still pretty bright and just looking at the door will illuminate it...
I can't think of a non intrusive way to seal that off. If you have any tips for that I'd take it as well.
Try a nightlight? When I was younger I was afraid of what’s inside the dark and couldn’t really sleep, so I read a lot and used my nightlight as a source of vision.
I was never allowed a night light cause the light going through the cracks in my door would keep my parents up or something... In my defense, they're all just light novels I've gotten physical copies of since I can't find a good digital seller and I like having a stack of LN's prowdly on my wall. I'll give my laptop a try.
Can you hang a blanket over your doorway (a winter-weight blanket should block most/all of the light gets around the door, & a couple of hooks plus some cord to run between them & hold the blanket up should be fairly cheap [I'm assuming your home has spare blankets])?
Maybe try something like this? If these are hard to find, maybe you could buy light ring that's used for selfie. These light are bright, but not as bright as night lamp
You could certainly use any number of fancy gadgets for this... or you could just get a dimmer light bulb. You could also just wait until they fall asleep, too, because a bit of light seeping under the crack of at least one door, probably two if they keep theirs closed, is definitely not keeping them awake.
Another solution would be to try out a polarization filter. Search a bit online and get a one that can cover your light frame maybe? It should be cheap