We all know a better night of sleep leads to a better next day of hiking. While the most ultralight of pillow techniques calls for using extra clothes, stuff sacks, water reservoirs, or anything you can find all stuffed into another stuff sack, many of us are already wearing the majority of our clothing in our sleeping bag, leading to a bleak build-your-own pillow situation.

This case calls for a separate (and more comfortable) dedicated pillow, and with many options now weighing just a few ounces and substantially increasing comfort at night, a pillow is often a mandatory item on many gear lists. The lightest of the dedicated options usually are inflatable or inflatable combined with fill to save weight and packing space – and frequently slide off those slippery sleeping pads at night. Sleeping with your pillow in your hood is one option, but when things get cold an inflatable pillow inside the hood of your sleeping bag doesn't allow you to seal your bag properly against the cold. And if you use a hoodless sleeping bag like I do, you're out of luck either way.

Securing Your Pillow to Your Sleeping Pad

An ultralight solution adding just an ounce or so to your pack can be found with a simple length of shock cord (start with about a 70” length, which is sufficient for pads up to 25” wide, then cut down from there sealing the ends carefully with a lighter) and a cord lock that you may already have hanging around in the darker corners of your gear stash. Or if you prefer multiuse and if your pack has a shock cord system on across the back like the popular ULA Circuit for example, this could be unstrung and repurposed at camp. I prefer a medium duty 1/8" shock cord as well as a matching cord lock, as the heavier shock cord has a higher holding power at a very minimal weight increase.

But the real trick is to run the shock cord through the loops of your pillow, instead of tying a fixed length to each side. With the through technique, not only can you adjust tension with the cord lock to fit any pad perfectly, but the pillow is free to move side to side on the shock cord runner as you toss and turn during the night, allowing you to keep your head centered on the pillow and allowing you to take it with you freely as you move, instead of you having to adjust to the position of the pillow. The shock cord still keeps the pillow from sliding off your pad on the lengthwise axis, however. If you don’t have a pillow with loops already, you can browse current options on the market for built-in attachment points to help for the easiest solution, or you can always get creative with a needle and thread, experiment with stick on loops, or use a pillow dry sack with loops. While an older Exped REM pillow is shown here, I've also adapted this system to the NEMO Fillo Elite pillow, as well.

In Conclusion

While all of our backpacking sleep systems are and should be a bit personalized to our own sleeping habits, once you get the gear and your system dialed in you can rest assured that you'll be able to sleep comfortably once you stop for the day and get your system all setup. And nobody wants to hike all day only to have to chase a pillow all night. On that note, nobody wants to have to deal with a sliding sleeping pad either, and for more on that sleep system conundrum you can check out our article on how to keep your sleeping pad in place. For more on pillows in general, see our backpacking pillow guide.

Editor's Note: This trail tip originally appeared in Issue 34 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.