does dimming a ccfl reduce its lifetime

Question

I just replaced my ccfl lamp in the laptop. I had recently been running it a bit dimmed, thinking that might reduce power and have the laptop run a bit cooler, and shortly after that it burnt out (wouldn't stay on).

I now read somewhere that running the ccfl lamp at less then full power greatly reduces its life, something about the cathodes not running at their proper temperature when you do that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_cathode:

"However, CCFLs are strictly limited in the degree to which they can be dimmed, both because a lower plasma current will lower the temperature of the cathode, causing erratic operation, and because running the cathode at too low a temperature drastically shortens the life of the lamps."

Is there any evidence or lore about that?