My Sleep System for Camping
SLEEPING BAG
I am not entirely convinced that sleeping bags are necessary for camping, especially with the growing popularity of quilts and other alternatives. However, that is not to say that you don’t need something to insulate your body when camping in cold weather.
Sleeping bags insulate with either down or synthetic loft. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the stuffing that keeps you warm but rather the air trapped between the gaps created by the stuffing’s loftiness. When the stuffing is compressed, it loses its insulation properties. This means that when you sleep in a sleeping bag a significant portion of the insulation, the compressed section between your body and the ground, is rendered useless. This is not such a big deal if you have a decent sleeping pad between your bag and the ground, but why waste some of the bag’s capacity to keep you warm.
After learning about this I started sleeping with my bag unzipped and just using it as a blanket… Maybe at some point I will decide to invest in a quilt made for that purpose, but for now my unzipped-blanket method works fine.
FJALLRAVEN MOVE IN BAG
I brought my Fjallraven Move In Bag, which is rated to 5°C/41°F for comfort and down to -9°C/15.8°F for extreme conditions, paired with a Sea to Summit sleeping bag liner, which adds up to 8.3°C/15°F to the bag.
I bought this bag a couple years ago when I worked in a Fjallraven store in New York for a few months. Let there be no confusion about why I chose this brand. We were offered an employee discount on the website and I tried to make the most of the opportunity. However, there’s a reason I chose this bag over their other models. First, I tend to sleep pretty hot so I wanted something lighter that I wouldn’t suffocate in. Second, I shift around in my sleep so I wanted something less constraining than a typical “mummy bag” that only allows you to move like a caterpillar. Fjallraven essentially offers the same bag in two different cuts depending on your comfort preference. There is the “move-in” bag and the “move-with” bag. Once I narrowed down my options it was easy for me to decide between the two, but everyone is different. You do you.
I was comfortable with what I had however determining what sleeping bag to bring on a trip can depend on multiple factors like the time of year you plan to visit Iceland, the weather forecast for the nights you plan to camp, even your general tolerance for cold weather. Other variables to consider are your tent and sleeping pad. The tents we brought are both rated for 3-seasons. If you plan to bring a 2-season tent to Iceland in September, you might want to consider a sleeping bag that is rated for lower temperatures than the one I brought. Same goes for the sleeping pad and whatever you plan to wear to bed. For example, when camping in the cold, I like to wear a warm hat to sleep but I don’t like wearing socks even though they do keep you warmer.
Sustainability is another point worth mentioning. Presumably those who appreciate the outdoors enough to want to go camping also understand how important it is to preserve natural ecosystems and reduce pollution, if not for the ecosystem itself then for the sake of preserving the state of the environment in which they choose to recreate. That being said, I think it’s important to point out that unlike many other brands, the down insulation that Fjallraven uses in their sleeping bags and parkas is all harvested from food industry birds.
Keep in mind that sustainability is one of the company’s main advertising points that they encourage their employees to promote. Even though I can assure you that I no longer have any affiliation with Fjallraven, I understand that there will be skeptics. Feel free to take this information with a grain of salt. I doubt that they would make such bold claims without evidence to back them up, but you can judge for yourself. I found this short video that the company produced, which explains the benefits of their down production process.
Just for the sake of proving that I am not a loyalist I’ll tell you that no company is perfect, and even though their products are presumed to be produced via humane and sustainable practices, the way each store operates has a lot more to with the priorities of the people working there compared to the agenda of the corporate marketing team.
I don’t know if the sustainability practices are a true representation of what the people pushing that message actually believe or if it is merely a productive advertising strategy in a time when the current political atmosphere is saturated with discussions about the changes in Earth’s climate. What I do know is that even if there is some company policy dictating that managers and employees are required to prioritize sustainable practices over everything else, it certainly was not enforced or even suggested. The example I remember pondering had to do with shopping bags. If a company is so set on promoting themselves under the banner of sustainability, then why do they hand out so many disposable bags? Should they not try to incentivize people to bring their own bags, or even charge them for a reusable one? I know that I’m nit-picking and that everyone is a hypocrite on some level but yeah, just sayin…’
SLEEPING BAG LINER
I only discovered these a few years ago but I am amazed at how much I use mine. The concept is fairly straight forward. It’s a liner for your sleeping bag, however there is beauty in simplicity.
The first benefit is the additional warmth. Sleeping bag liners are sold in a wide range of temperature ratings. If you have a lighter sleeping bag that’s designed for warmer months, a liner can add a significant degree of versatility for a much lower price than you would pay for a new bag for every new occasion.
Cleanliness is another benefit of using a liner. Think of it like a duvet cover. It’s much easier to wash the liner than it is to wash the sleeping bag.
SEA TO SUMMIT THERMOLITE REACTOR SLEEPING BAG LINER
My sleeping bag liner adds up to 8.3°C/15°F to my bag, which puts it in the middle of the warmth spectrum. When camping in the summer, I often neglect my sleeping bag entirely, opting to sleep in the liner by itself. In Iceland it was a welcome addition to the layers I wore to sleep and after several days of hiking and no showers, it was nice to be able to to just chuck it in the wash with the rest of my clothes.
SLEEPING PAD
A sleeping pad is an essential gear item (especially when camping in cold weather) that is often overlooked. It is arguably more important than a sleeping bag. Remember when we talked about how sleeping bags lose their insulation properties when the loft is compressed? Your sleeping pad can be the difference between sleeping comfortably and getting hypothermia.
I’ll elaborate more on this concept below in the section on clothing, but for now all you need to know is that cold ground will rapidly suck the heat out of your body if you do not have an insulated buffer in between. And no, the compressed sleeping bag does not count, neither does the thin material at the bottom of your tent. The effectiveness of a sleeping pad is measured by its “R-Value,” which represents how well it prevents heat from transferring through it. A pad with a higher R-Value keep you warmer than one with a lower R-Value.
There are two types of sleeping pads, closed-cell foam and inflatable. Closed cell foam pads are usually heavier, bulkier, more durable and more affordable but inflatable pads are more comfortable.
I brought a foam pad to Iceland because it was all that I owned at the time, but since then I have upgraded to an inflatable pad.
THERM-A-REST RIDGE REST
I was more than fine sleeping on the extremely inexpensive Therm-a-rest Ridge Rest. It does what it’s supposed to do, which is all you really need. However, I recently upgraded to the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite.
THERM-A-REST NEOAIR XLITE
This sleeping pad is more comfortable than my old one by several orders of magnitude. Despite the bit of noise it makes when shifting around, it promotes much better sleep than the foam pad.
It is a lot more expensive and I do have to be careful not to accidentally pop it, but the ripstop material has held up so far and the improvements in the quality of sleep I get combined with no longer needing to dangle a rolled up foam mat off my pack more than justifies the investment in my mind.