How to keep warm in a sleeping bag whilst camping?

[Yeahyeahyeahnooooo]

I'm a very reluctant camper but the dc really want to go. Last time I was too cold to sleep and absolutely miserable - any tips?

Totally agree canuckup, it isn't fun at all! It used to be tolerable for festivals while I was younger but now with kids - I simply don't do it.

I've also heard camping described as recreational moving and I think that's very accurate.

Heatholders 2.3 tog socks, you can layer up & wear 2 pairs together, fleece lined leggings, a thermal top & a sweatshirt or hoodie, if you wear a hoodie you can put the hoodie on to prevent heat loss from your head. If you have electric hook up or a big power bank then a heated blanket over the top of your sleeping bag, a memory foam topper on top of your airbed or a thick duvet, put some of that foil insulation you put behind radiators under your airbed to reflect heat lost back to you, cut enough for the size of your airbed & tape together with silver tape. Failing that, buy a caravan.

Warm enough sleeping bag (3 seasons depending on where you are and when you’re camping) and proper ground mat (a decent inflatable one). We camp regularly and usually I’m too hot. Only time I’ve ever been cold was during cancer treatment when I was cold all the time anyway!

Get a sleeping bag with high tog number.

Yep was going to say this

I take a fleecy bedding set with winter quilt but climb in to the duvet cover to trap the heat in. Hate feeling restricted in a sleeping bag as I sleep in the recovery position.

I also wear a hoody as find I get a draft down my neck otherwise.
Add to that fluffy socks, jersey joggers and a hot water bottle and I’m generally fine and cosy.

Wear a hat.

In addition to the fleece sleeping bag liner, quality 3 or 4 season sleeping bag, get a camp bed that lifts you off the ground (rather than sleeping on a ground mat).

There is a MN Camping Board!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/camping

Change into winter thermal layer under clothes for bed early in the evening (after dinner but before you sit quietly for a couple of hours) - so even if you don’t change to PJs then, you don’t expose all your skin to cold air just at bedtime

Put a warm pair of socks into sleeping bag with HWB 30 mins before bed

Try not to get too cold in the evening and when going for last loo walk - add layers (and hat)

definitely put on woolly hat going to bed, if not already on

change socks to the warm ones getting into bed (others may be damp from loo walk and dew)

Layers underneath sleeping bag are important too - I bring play tiles that slot together to put on floor of sleeping spaces, but even the picnic blankets with foil underneath help a lot (foil side facing ground).

If you are taking the car, then the cheapest and simplest answer is a double wool blanket (which you can pick up off eBay for £10-15) double means you can sandwhich your sleeping bag in between the wool blanket. The disadvantage of a wool blanket is weight and they don’t compact down well.

For me a hat and a neck buff. I wear long pj's and sleep inside a fleece liner inside my sleeping bag. At home I sleep with the window open but in a tent I just could never get warm enough. I also use a SIM (self inflating mat) and place a fleece blanket over the top of that.

We have 2 of these which zo together to feel like a duvet. We're normally too hot! They're cotton and go on the washing machine. Sleep with one of the kids and steal their body heat.
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139 responses, mostly people who wrap themselves up like mummies, struggling unnecessarily (because I don’t believe any of this gear is cheap AT ALL) and a Premier Inn would be cheaper if you’re not going abroad.

I am absolutely stunned so many people CHOOSE to do this.

Ok for a festival I get it, no other choice, but to purposely sleep in a field with loads of others, freezing (unless you dress to climb Mount Everest) what on earth?!

Like I said OP, just put the children in the back garden with their father to fulfil their curiosity and spirit of sleeping on the ground.

What time of year is this madness proposed to take place?

Years ago, camping with guides, before technical equipment was really a thing, and certainly before any of our parents would have paid for it, we were taught to make our "bedrolls" so blankets went under and over the sleeping bag, and to take a jumper designated for sleeping. Getting layers between you and the ground will make a big difference.

I combat it by only camping if I’m able to get drunk (or stoned) enough to no longer notice the misery of camping and can fall into a blissful slumber, until some twat pisses on your tent or starts shouting Alan.

Give over! Camping is way, way cheaper than a premier inn and loads more facilities if you do it well.

Assuming you already have the kit, then 2 adults a child and two dogs, we would pay £20/£25 a night for a tent pitch with electric hookup, £140-£175 for a week, we have a heater, fridge, tv in the tent, more floor space than any caravan we've ever been in. So there's camping in the wild freezing your tits off, and then there's camping with electric for people like me who absolutely hate being cold.

I prefer going to cottages/caravans in all honesty, but you're talking a minimum of £600 a week in school holidays and a week at a premier inn would be my idea of hell. You basically have to live in a bedroom for a week, and you can't even make your own food! So is either eat out all the time (£££) or live on sandwiches or fast food. It's fine for a city break, but for a holiday, it would definitely be worse than camping for me!

That’s very cheap here in the southeast most sites charge upwards of £35 a night with electric hookup riding up to £45 in peak season.

Damart thermal long johns

A WEEK of camping. OMG

Air bed, duvet under me, another duvet over me, warm PJ's hat and socks. Go to bed warm. Don't camp between October and April inclusively

Some people like the freedom of camping, or want to give their DCs that experience.

As a former guide, and a Cub Scout leader of many years, camping has had to be part of my summers. But we always look at doing it in a way that young children (8-11) actually sleep and enjoy it - but not expensively on parents. So we tell them to send the cheap foam rolled sleeping mats, not to buy the expensive SIMs. Some of them also bring a fleece blanket for on top…the kind that are €10 in Primark that people throw over couches or kids like to snuggle under.

As I said, for years I used a Lidl picnic rug under mine as my insulating layer (I don’t sleep well camping and I am the one woken for nightmares or illness during the night as the only female leader, I usually share amongst the male leaders who gets a bad night with me and who gets a good sleep).

My thermals are the ones I use when there is very cold weather in winter, not especially bought. The same with my hat (regular woolly hat), warm socks (I bring an extra pair of hiking socks), HWB, they are all things I have anyway.

Admittedly I upgraded my picnic rug to a €10 pack of play tiles about 5 years ago..which in my case are dedicated to camping but I would use at home if there were smallies coming to play in the garden.

Camping can be (very) expensive if you go for the technical gear and best of the best. But the gear that Lidl/Aldi sell, and cheaper outdoor stores also, generally works very well if you plan properly and use what you have at home or use sensible regular options. And give a very different, and lovely, experience compared to a premier inn (and that’s as someone who is not the best sleeper when camping…but it got so much better once I got myself comfortable and warm so it was just normal bad sleep not miserableness).

Last time I went camping I realised I’d freeze so we went to a nearby Sainsburys for warm dressing gown and PJs. I had bed socks on too. Don’t care what anyone says I find you sleep well in fresh air.

I love camping.

I actively enjoy being outdoors, sleeping in a canvas (not polyester ) tent, often cooking over a wood fire, sitting by the fire at night.

Dc are the same. As children Exploring woodland , making dens, building the fire, toasting marshmellows , whittling sticks etc.

I guess it’s the same reason people enjoy sitting for hours quietly fishing or birdwatching. Or hiking (my thing)

Either you get it or you don’t.

And we are never uncomfortable or cold, I just sleep in my roomy sleeping bag in pants and T shirt, with a good SIM underneath. Took a fleece blanket last week as it is still early in the season.

Apart from us simply enjoying it, I think it has been good for the Dc growing up. Alternative ways of doing things, not always needing ‘attractions’ for a good time, screen-free and happy to be so. Mucking in because tent pitching and campfire cooking are fun and they feel trusted with responsibility.

And it has been very economical for us. Weekends away for the cost of a pitch. We have not spent ££££ on kit.

It’s not compulsory . If it’s not for you, fine. But some of us actively enjoy it.

And definitely prefer it to a Premier Inn and other chain hotels with their synthetic smells, view of the car park, etc