(How) do you sleep in the backcountry?

[Surfcam]

I sleep with an Enlightened Equipment quilt, Neoair xlite regular pad and and Big Sky Dream Sleeper pillow. Nearly every night in the backcountry I sleep like a rock for the first 3-4 hours then wake up about every hour to roll over and fall back to sleep. I feel fine in the morning but rarely sleep without waking/rolling over during the later half. It's the same whether I hike 5 or 20 miles. If the weather is good I cowboy camp and if it's bad I'll use my Six Moon Designs Deschutes tarp. These don't affect my sleep one way or the other. I have my pad about 60% inflated otherwise my lower back will hurt the next day. I also Velcro my pillow to my pad otherwise it "slips" out from under my head. That wakes me up a lot. 

[Tintype]

I always had problems sleeping on the ground in a tent, even with a good pad. I went on a trip with a buddy who had an Eno hammock system. I tried it out and sold my tent the day I got back! I now have a Warbonnet Blackbird hammock with Hammock gear down quilts and a cuben fiber tarp. All together this system weighs about 5-3/4 Lbs. I Love my hammock! I'm taking it out on the AT next week.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Tintype

[balzaccom]

We've had a lot of people ask us about what we use for sleeping pads.  "How can you be comfortable sleeping on the ground?" they ask.  They seem to think that sleeping on the ground is...hard. 

    Well, to be fair, the ground is hard, and we've made some adjustments over the years. 

    I slept for many years on a 1/2 inch piece of closed cell  blue foam.  My wife was always trying something new, and usually in combination with at least one other pad--the best combination was a Thermarest Z-rest mattress over 1/2 of foam pad. 

    But then one year for her birthday, I bought her a Thermarest Neo-Air mattress--the modern version of that old inflatable plastic thing that we used as scouts.  It was a revelation, and she was in heaven. 

    I remained unconvinced.  "Goldurn fancypants foolishness" or something like that, was what I could be heard to mutter under my breath. 

    Until, that is, one day when I accepted her offer to borrow her Neo-Air to take a nap in the afternoon.  Holy Mackerel was that nice!  I quickly bought one for myself.  One order of fancypants foolishness to go, and make it snappy!

    They are relatively light (about 12 ounces, all in) and inflate to a VERY comfortable 2 inches or more.  Of luxury.  All part of our home away from home. 

    So we used these pads for about four years, and were pretty darn happy with them.  Over time they began to leak and flatten out over the course of a night. And after living with them for a couple of years that way,  re-inflating them in the middle of the night, we finally contacted Neo-Air about getting them fixed.

    Very simply process, and they made it easy.  We sent them our mattresses, and they promised to fix them for very little money indeed--all in the course of a promised 4-6 week turnaround.  Can't beat that.
 
    Well, you can beat that. 

    Because about two weeks later, instead of fixing all of the leaks in our older model mattresses, they sent us brand new ones that don't leak.

    We're sold.  Again.  We can hardly wait to sleep on them. Again.

[Korey]

There are usually two factors that work against a good night's sleep for me, and those are discomfort, which can be fixed with a good sleep system, and the other is simply being in a new environment. 

As far as a sleep system goes, I've always said I'm willing to add weight and spend money if it means better sleep, because sleeping miserably means hiking miserably. As a side/stomach sleeper, I can't say enough about my Sierra Designs backcountry bed. That, paired with a cheap liner is the perfect combo for me, and I usually stack 2 sleeping pads, a thermarest foam pad on bottom, and a NEMO ORA  inflatable pad on top, although recently I have been using a REI trekker 1.75 pad and really liking it.

And as far as the environmental aspect, no matter how much I tell myself it's nothing, my brain works overtime the first night of any trip, picking up all the new noises you don't hear when going to bed inside, like crickets, or squirrels, raccoons and deer rustling in the brush. That usually just takes a night or two for me to get used to.

[J-Squared]

Honestly never thought about putting 2 pads together.  I'm trying to cut weight but the idea of a more comfortable night's sleep is definitely intriguing.  As far as sleeping, I find two things really help.  A hard hike leaving me very tired and a nightcap before retiring.  I live in the woods with no AC so windows are open all summer. Night noises are soothing to me and natural although I do still get nervous in bear country.  

[FatherGoat]

Another hammock sleeper checking in.

The first few times I slept out in the hammock it wasn't great.  I've read stories where people are converts after the first night in a hammock but I was leaning the other way.  However, because of those stories I kept with it and I'm sure glad I did!

Many people's exposure to camping type hammocks is with something like an Eno hammock.  While these are great hammocks for lounging about they aren't great for sleeping (in my experience).  Eno hammocks are sub-9' in length.  I tried a 9', 10', and eventually an 11' hammock to really get a great night's sleep.  The added length of the hammock allows you to lay flatter in the hammock.  The extra couple feet make all the difference in the world.

It took a season of testing different gear but last season I finally got the system dialed in.  Top to bottom my hammock setup comes in just under 4 pounds for 3 season hanging.

[Karo]

I'm still having problems getting a good sleep in the backcountry. Despite being super tired, having great pad, cushy sleeping bag and inflatable pillow I'm just not able to sleep well. On top of that I'm a chicken type sleeper  which doesn't help at all. I guess my only way out  is to practice as often as possible. Strangely enough sleeping couple of nights with one eye open doesn't drain me as much as sleepless night at home. Maybe it's the fresh air  

[Mark Wetherington]

On ‎9‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 3:17 PM, balzaccom said:

We've had a lot of people ask us about what we use for sleeping pads.  "How can you be comfortable sleeping on the ground?" they ask.  They seem to think that sleeping on the ground is...hard. 

    Well, to be fair, the ground is hard, and we've made some adjustments over the years. 

    I slept for many years on a 1/2 inch piece of closed cell  blue foam.  My wife was always trying something new, and usually in combination with at least one other pad--the best combination was a Thermarest Z-rest mattress over 1/2 of foam pad. 

    But then one year for her birthday, I bought her a Thermarest Neo-Air mattress--the modern version of that old inflatable plastic thing that we used as scouts.  It was a revelation, and she was in heaven. 

    I remained unconvinced.  "Goldurn fancypants foolishness" or something like that, was what I could be heard to mutter under my breath. 

    Until, that is, one day when I accepted her offer to borrow her Neo-Air to take a nap in the afternoon.  Holy Mackerel was that nice!  I quickly bought one for myself.  One order of fancypants foolishness to go, and make it snappy!

    They are relatively light (about 12 ounces, all in) and inflate to a VERY comfortable 2 inches or more.  Of luxury.  All part of our home away from home. 

    So we used these pads for about four years, and were pretty darn happy with them.  Over time they began to leak and flatten out over the course of a night. And after living with them for a couple of years that way,  re-inflating them in the middle of the night, we finally contacted Neo-Air about getting them fixed.

    Very simply process, and they made it easy.  We sent them our mattresses, and they promised to fix them for very little money indeed--all in the course of a promised 4-6 week turnaround.  Can't beat that.
 
    Well, you can beat that. 

    Because about two weeks later, instead of fixing all of the leaks in our older model mattresses, they sent us brand new ones that don't leak.

    We're sold.  Again.  We can hardly wait to sleep on them. Again.

I'm a huge fan of the NeoAirs as well. I've owned a NeoAir All-Season and a 3/4 NeoAir since 2012 and switch back and forth between the two depending on the season. I always use them with a 3/4 close-cell foam (Thermarest Z-Rest) to prevent punctures, add insulation, and increase comfort (and as a back up in case my pad or a partner's pad fails . . . and this has happened, was very glad to be able to put a pad under my friend when his pad decided to refuse to hold air for more than a few hours).

I haven't really noticed much wear on them . . . the All Season probably has 75+ nights on it and about half that for the NeoAir. Hoping they will last for several more years.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Mark

[angelfire]

For some reason, I sleep in the woods better than I do at home. I love my 3/4-length (9 oz.) old, original Neo-Air. When it's cold, I put a Ridgerest under it for insulation under my lower legs and feet. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our ZPacks two-person, 20-degree water-resistant down quilt! It is incredibly light (29.8 oz., and that's for two people), and it is so snuggly and soft. It allows my husband to "share" his body warmth with me. He sleeps hot and I sleep cold. When it's really cold, we place a fleece square over our mats (joined with a ZPacks mattress coupler). On summer nights, we sleep on a square of bridal organza from the fabric store. It's really light weight (3.3 oz.) and keeps our sweaty skin from sticking to the mattresses.

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

@angelfire I always thought the ZPacks twin quilt could be a nice investment - hard to argue with those specs for two! I use their 20 degree solo bag (previous version without the new vertical baffles), and have found the rating to hold pretty true but curious if that translates over to to twin quilt as well considering the design difference and the different method of use...have had mixed results combining 2 normal (not ZPacks) bags in the past. Do you feel the rating has been pretty accurate in your experience?