The red light is great for nightwork....when I was at the National Observatory for a night sky watch program last March, they gave each of red LED light to use for looking at the starmaps. Your eyes, once adjusted to the darkness, will be able to see just fine with the red light at night for reading. If you had a white light, it would be too bright and it would take your eyes another 30 mintues to readjust to the darkness again.
Red lights are good at night...as long as no ghost stories were told about red glowing eyes and monsters around a campfire with small children