What to sleep on? Or more to the point, how to sleep when camping?

[pigsinmud]

The schilke family are camping again this summer...oh no. We bought a massive tent 2 years ago (or was it 3?) and went camping for a week. The children loved it - all four of them. I hated it.

I couldn't sleep - was awake every night until 2/3am and then woke at 6am with back ache. I was "sleeping" on a fat airic which seemed comfortable. The only good thing about waking early was that I was first in the showers. By the end of the week I was grumpy, knackered and felt generally crap.

My plan this year is not to sleep in the same little compartment as dh, but to sleep in the massive main area - claustrophobic feelings in that place. Also, to get a sleeping pod - hated the mummy sleeping bag as I felt trapped.

Is there something better to sleep on? Any more tips. I am so enthusiastic. Dh suggested drinking a bottle of wine each night, but I decided I'd just feel crap due to alcohol, rather than lack of sleep!

Oh - just realised the thermarest dreamtime is about £140 I think the camp bed for £20 is a more likely purchase!

The dreamtime is also MASSIVE when rolled!

I always take a hot water bottle , being extra warm helps me sleep well!

Have you seen the vango extra large sleeping bags which are in a fat rectangle? They're lovely, not clostrophobic at all, very warm and cosy. I ordered the sleeping pod things and sent them back as they did not look all that warm.

I used the Thermarest basecamp SIM, I found having it not too over inflated was quite comfy, do once it was inflated I wouldn't add an extra puff into it IYKWIM.

We have an older season version of this :
www.vango.co.uk/family/dormir-comfort.html

I have one of those vango extra large bags and it was fab this weekend. Really cosy, I could stretch out. I had a duvet over the top though, as it was freezing, and a 10cm sim underneath. Happy nights!

They're so roomy aren't they tom? I usually pop a fleece on top & I wear thermals too under my PJs and have a hot water bottle too!

If you decide to get an old fashioned camp bed you will also need a thermarest or similar on top of it otherwise you will be cold. DSs will be sleeping on camp beds this summer with a cheap sim on top and then their sleeping bags. That way they can put all their stuff under the bed.
I suspect that a camp bed, something padded like a sim or a mattress topper and then proper sheets and a single duvet and an extra blanket might be the best combination. Wear socks, thermals, pjs and a jumper and you'll definitely be toasty and warm, maybe with a hot water bottle and a hat.
I've decided I'm going to choose a lovely liqueur, maybe amaretto, (good with ice or hot chocolate) instead of wine because there's more alcohol for a smaller amount of liquid so hopefully less peeing in the night.

Me too poppy - then I feel too hot in the middle of the night! Wore a hat too this weekend.

poppyboo - noted that sleeping pod thingies not good, so am now tempted by your vango suggestion. Found it for £30, so not too bad.

Dh thinks camp bed is a very bad idea - probably because he just spent a few drunk nights on one in Belgium. What about aerobed pakmat? Looks quite comfy.

loubielou31 - very good idea. I quite like a glass of drambuie, so perhaps I'll take that!

I'm having one now just to check. Well I've finished it and am now off to bed.

I think I paid about £30 for mine by getting a past season vango, I just had a good google around the net and checked dimensions/warmth against current season one on vango site. Quite often they just update fabric design.

hot water bottle is a must for me.

In the uk and abroad if we have the car we sleep on a double airbed with one fleece blanket underneath and one on top, then a 13 tog double duvet on the top if in UK, or two sleeping bags if hot. We also take pillows from home. I wear long sleeved pyjamas and socks to bed.

If we aren't car camping, then we have vango version thermarests which are ok for a couple of days but I find I get very sore hips and lower back for any greater length of time.

We also shower in the early evening then layer up, it stops you from getting too cold before going to bed. That plus the wine, but wine consumption needs to be balancesd against bladder strength!

Hope you find a solution.

Another vote for your own duvet and pillows. We have a quite funky blow-up bed that does it itself (after the old faithful did the dying swan on us in the middle of the night at the foot of Snowdon, in the freezing cold. I almost gave up camping on that day :))

This covered with a sheet or a fleece blanket if it is cold and our quilt and pillows on top (we have a king size quilt so it drapes quite artfully over the sides and allows me to hole myself up like a dormouse) I am one of those people who are always hot in bed (!) so I tend sleep naked or with a pair of PJ bottoms and a vest top if cold. Always have a hat nearby in case you get suddenly cold.

We pack ours in those vacuum bags and have adapted the bed blower upper with a small piece of white waste pipe. This is by far and away our best camping innovation ever :o

Also as blacktea says, get the layers on early in the evening. I am often sniggered at for wandering around in my hat while everyone else is still in shorts and t-shirt :o

topbannana pics of the high-tech waste pipe blower, please

It's exactly what I want.