Sleepin in your clothes

imported
#1

Recently, with so many people suggesting it, I tried sleeping “in” my clothes for extra warm, rather than just spreading them on top of me as I have done in the past.

Specifically, I tried sleeping in a Polarguard jacket, then, later, in a Primaloft jacket. After a few days of this, it seemed to me that this practice would eventually, fairly soon actually, bread down the artifical insulation and ruin the jackets.

My thinking is that using our jackets as inner blankets, rather then wearing them, inside our sleeping bags, is preferable for the life of the garment. Also, I find the “blanket” approach warmer.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Thanks, Conan

Conan

#2

If you use clothing that relies upon loft to keep you warm, i.e. down jackets, I wouldn’t be surprised to find the garments better suited as blankets in order to avoid too much compression of the insulating material (presuming you can avoid wriggling around and tossing the jacket off to the side). However, I sleep in nylon rain pants and my frogg togg jacket. Those type of garments don’t rely upon loft and are definately warmer when worn rather than laid under. As for the life of your jackets, sleeping in them certainly isn’t going to extend their life, but I doubt it would significantly shorten them either. If that weren’t the case, wouldn’t sleeping bags have a pretty short life also? I dunno.

Matt

#3

Matt:

  1. I am focusing on fiberfill and down clothing specifically. So, apples and oranges with respect to rainwear.

  2. Sleeping bags do break down faster on the bottom, where body weight compresses the fiberfill and down insulation. This is exactly what I am suggesting happens with fiberfill and down clothing when one sleeps in it.

Perhaps the better questions would be whether people who sleep in their fiberfill and down clothing simply accept the earlier breaking down of the insulation as the cost of doing business, as a fair exchange?

Conan

Conan

#4

I guess I’m of the opinion that your bag should handle most of the temps that you expect on a trip. Sleeping in your insulating layers (other than long underwear) should be reserved for the unexpected nights. If you follow this plan, you should only occasionally have to resort to sleeping in all of your clothes. Not often enough to worry about longevity. If you regularly plan on using them, for regular temps, you have no safety/comfort margin for the unexpected.

With the ultralite bags out there today, no real reason to skimp on bag warmth. Unless of course you are on a very restricted budget. Even then, there are many other more appropriate places to save.

Remember you will be spending about 1/3 of your time in your sleeping bag expecting it to keep you comfortable. Even more time during the winter.

Lyle

#5

Lyle:

My own method is to bring along a sleeping bag rated 10*F warmer than my worst expected environmental temperature; the bag being my last refuge, the place where I can do that most important thing–stay warm and dry. Like you, I view clothing as supplemental for sleeping, to be used only in an emergency. This is the older, tried and true method.

My point is, that many people today talk about taking a sleeping bag that that isn’t rated warm enough for expected temperatures, and wearing all their clothing to bed to make up for the deficit. As you say, this leaves no margin for error; or, no margin for safety when the unexpected occurs.

But, perhaps its all talk, as no one has written in to endorse the method (Matt’s statement is not that strong).

My inquiries, to the people who DO rely on their insulated clothing to supplement a deficient sleeping bag, are as follows:

(1) Whether they find wearing the fiberfill or down clothing warmer when wearing it inside their sleeping bags, or using it as an inner blanket; and

(2) Given that wearing the fiberfill or down clothing during sleep breaks down the fibers and down more quickly, thus reducing the warmth of the clothing and requiring replacement of it sooner than usual, whether they view the reduced efficiency and increased cost due to more frequent relacement, as a fair trade off, as part of doing business.

Conan

Conan

#6

“(1) Whether they find the fiberfill or down clothing warmer when wearing it inside their sleeping bags, or using it as an inner blanket; and”

Conan

Conan

#7

Generally speaking, draping clothing (any sort) tends to be warmer than wearing it, because:

a) it provides more surface area over the person where it can best insulate against radiative heat loss
b) it creates more dead air space than wearing the garment tightly about you (as happens in a bag), which the body can then warm

Insulation beneath the individual - primarily to minimize conductive heat loss to the ground - is most effective only when it cannot be significantly compressed, which is why the part of the sleeping bag beneath you, like clothing you wear, is inefficient in this regard. (And why a sleeping pad becomes increasingly important as the ground becomes colder.)

Wearing base layers to bed seems to make more sense than trying to drape them, since pants and non-zippered tops don’t open wide for draping. But an insulated jacket draped over the torso can be considerably warmer than wearing it, provided one has developed the knack for keeping it in place over the torso during the night.

blisterfree

#8

blisterfree:

  1. Good explanation of the basics.

  2. My personal discovery was that turning an insulated jacket upside down when using it as a blanket inside a sleeping bag, with the hem of the jacket up at your shoulders and neck, makes keeping it in place no problem at all–problem completely solved.

Conan

Conan

#9

Before I purchased a fleece sleeping bag liner for my 30 degree bag, I used to take a fleece and put it over me inside of the sleeping bag. I also used a down jacket once or twice but I felt that when I moved around at night it tended to get balled up and useless compared to the fleece.

My suggestion, after using both, is to get a good fleece jacket or small fleece blanket and use that on those cold nights.

Super Scout

#10

Super Scout:

See my solution above. With fiberfill and down jackets, used as blankets within a sleeping bag, turn the jackets upside down, with the hem at your neck and shoulders, and you won’t have the problem you described. Fiberfill and down being warmer than fleece, this would give you more warmth for the same or less weight.

Conan

Conan

#11

I tend to agree with Lyle’s first response - carry a bag or quilt rated for a lower temp than you expect to encounter. Wearing insulated or fleece clothing to bed causes other issues beside “break down” of their fillings, etc. Too much clothing inside a modern bag means you are trapping your body heat, with less being radiated to the bag filling which cuts down on the effectivness of the bag. The purpose of the bag filling is to trap your body heat to provide the warm barrier against the cold exterior of the bag. Secondly, wearing insulated clothing inside a bag may cause sweating, which is not a good thing in cold weather.
If you need more for those unanticiapted colder nights, I agree with BlisterFree who said drape the other clothes over the bag. You basically should not wear anymore than long thermals and socks, as needed.
Another solution is to use a light weight cotton or silk mummy bag liner. This will give you 4 to 6 degrees more rating for the bag, plus it eliminates those cold inside edges of the bag when you roll off the spot you had warmed. Most liners will weigh less than 8 ozs. It also provides some cleanliness for your bag by keeping dirt and body oil off the bag liner. There have been nights when I actually openned the bag and slept in the liner when it started getting too warm.
And lastly, none of this works unless you have the proper padded insulation between you and the ground/shelter floor/tent bottom/etc.

Rockdawg69

#12

Too much clothing inside a modern bag means you are trapping your body heat, with less being radiated to the bag filling which cuts down on the effectivness of the bag.<<

This is actually a popular misconception, and is along the lines of the old arguments sometimes used by outfitters (looking to sell warmer and more expensive sleeping bags) who would recommend sleeping naked rather than wearing clothing to bed.

In truth, the more clothing you wear, the warmer you stand to become, both when walking around by day and sleeping in a bag at night. The only exception is if the clothing is so bulky that it ends up compressing the bag’s insulation, thus reducing its loft and effective temperature rating.

Arguments against wearing extra clothing to avoid sweating disregard the idea of using clothing dynamically in order to dial in a comfortable effective bag rating without carrying more bag that is actually needed.

I don’t bring this up to start a debate, only to offer another perspective that in my experience rings true.

blisterfree

#13

Rockdawg69:

If you read closely, blisterfree is endorsing “draping” or using clothing as a “blanket” rather than wearing it as clothing, “inside” the sleeping bag, not outside.

No harm, no foul, just a correction.

Conan

Conan

#14

Hey, Thanks for the correction. I missed that point.

Rockdawg69

#15

My plans run like this, correct me if I’m wrong. I have a Montbell 30 degree bag, I have a Sea to Summit Reactor bag(insert type of bag) adds 10 degrees of warmth,then I have a silk liner, adds 9.5 degrees to bag! That takes me to 11 degrees doing the AT, in hot weather, I’ll use the reactor bag and the silk liner and have plenty of warmth. Everyone should use a silk or caprilene(sp) liner to protect and keep their bag clean anyway. Maint. of clothes, i.e. washing, drying, have enough clothes without having to carry tons of clothes, if your in them 24 hours a day, they will get foul quickly! Washing the liner is much easier… espec. if you own a down bag! I don’t want to carry anything that won’t do the job all the way, it’s a waste to me!

Crawl

Crawl

#16

No one has added to this category in a while so I don’t know if anyone is still interested. I too am in the “sleeping in your clothes is only for rare extremes” camp. I also really liked my silk bag liner. They are incredibly lightweight and add an amazing amount of warmth. Another thing that you can do with them, if you hit a stretch of really cold weather where you have problems keeping warm even while you are hiking with every stitch of clothing you have on, you can wrap in around your head and neck to serve as a very warm scarf.

Fire Hazard