What do you sleep on? Is it worth paying £50+ for a proper self inflating mat?

[sandyballs]

I spent a miserable night in my tent the other weekend, on an old air bed with my two DDs. To begin with I felt sea sick every time one of them moved, then later on it completely deflated and it was like sleeping on the ground.

I've been looking on-line at mats/airbeds/camp beds. What do you all use/recommend? Does anyone use the camp beds with legs?

I used to swear by my Thermarest - aboslutely the very best camping mat I have ever slept on, and I do not exaggerate. It was recommended to me by a chiropractor after my back completely gave out on me.

But now that I'm old and stiff and don't like sleeping on a completely flat surface anymore, dh and I sleep on an airbed. It's fine as long as there is no puncture!

We just bought self inflating. Go outdoors had as double 5cm thick one on offer for £40 - areal bargain. We (DH and I) slept well on it all last week. Was pretty comfy and no sea sickness when the other turned over!

We have a slightly fiddly arrangement LOL but it does work, even for early season camping

fleece blanket on floor

on top is an adult ready bed complete with sleeping bag that is built in

on top again is our sleeoing bag (a flannel lined lichfield from Argos).

It works fab

dd and ds have the camp beds with legs. dp and I have an inflatable double mattress from Millets. It's really important to be pernickety about how far blown up it it - test it and reinflate every day if necessary. An make sure there's at least two layers between you and the mattress - particularlyl if it's cold. It's wort spending 10 minutes every evening getting the level of inflation right - it makes all the difference!

our ds's have the camp beds from millets too, they love them.

DS has a campbed with legs - he did OK on it.
We have Coleman Comfort double air mattress - it is brilliant - much less wobbly than normal air bed as it has 2 separate sections.
(Also Aldi are selling self inflating matresses cheapo at the mo + other camping stuff)

I prefer an old fashion bedroll and I bring a big down square pillow

Think its worth working out how much use you'll get from it - we have found that campbeds with legs - bit dependent on ground/ weather/ falling off etc (incomfy if you roll into frame!) self inflating - buy a good one if you're getting one - we got some cheap ish ones say £25 for singles nd after a couple of years, we'd inflated them the night before and wake up on the floor (stones in side!) as they'd deflated! Alternativley if your not doing loads of camping the roll foam mats are fab - and a couple of those with a good groundsheet/ sleeping bag/ layered balnkets etc is great - hth!

We've got coleman comfort airbeds. The doubles have separate chambers with separate valves so that you don't do that 'boat rocking' thing when the other person moves.Very comfy.

We have this, it's lovely

anywhere bed

Sal just buy one. They are sooooooooooooooo worth it.

I got our self-inflating double mats from an Ebay shop called Cyber Checkout for £20 each. Brilliant for kids because they can't fall off. Lovely and quiet and not rolly for grownups.