Sleeping Mats

I've been scouring the boards here trying to see if anyone else uses the same "sleeping pad" method as I do and I didn't see anything that caught my attention.

I really don't like the extra weight of the sleeping pad, even though I know that it does help to keep you warm from the cold coming up from the ground. I have been using the silver emergancy blankets under my sleeping bag to keep me warm from the cold and also keep my sleeping bag clean from dirt.

Does anyone else use this method at all? I know it doesn't give much comfort, but I would rather sleep on the hardwood floors in my house sometimes rather than my pillowtop matress.

I've used this method when I was a kid. Back then I didn't seem to need much cushion between me and the ground. Now that I'm older I need a lot!

But a pad provides more than comfort. It should keep you from getting cold at night. You really need something like a CCF pad between you and the ground when the ground gets cold. Perhaps some of the engineers/physicists can correct me if I'm wrong here (I'm an economist, not an engineer) but the reflective coating on the emergency blanket only works to reflect back (some of) the heat you are losing by radiation. But this is a very minor thing compared to the other potential sources of heat loss. Your sleeping bag reduces the heat loss do to convection (circulating cold air). But when sleeping on the cold ground a huge (and perhaps the major) source of heat loss is by conduction, i.e. the heat loss you feel when touching a cold object. This is where a substantial pad becomes important.

Go ahead and use the emergency blanket in mild weather. But get a pad for the months ahead.

You are right on Heber. Conduction is the major heat loss when laying on a huge heat sink like the ground. A CCF pad weighs very little and costs little as well.

You sound like you might be happy trying a thin sleeping pad, one that is meant to add warmth rather than cushioning. The only ones I know about are made by Gossamer Gear. (link)

I prefer closed cell pads to inflatables; you can trim them to fit, and they can double as back padding inside a pack. Just let the pad unroll inside the pack & stuff your gear in the middle, or fold it up like an accordian. Many ultralight packs don't come with back padding for this reason. I find it works best with torso-length pads, or thin ones.

I like my thermorest roll-up pad. It's the short one, only goes from my head to the back of my knees, but that's plenty. It's surprisingly comfertable for how thin it is, and it's not too expensive. Best piece of gear I've bought so far. I wrap it up with my sleeping bag for easy storage. It does tend to slip around a bit, some suggestions to prevent this I haven't tried are velcroing it the tent floor, putting a shelf liner between it and the tent floor and even adding dots of silcon caulk to the tent floor!

Some of my fellow hikers are larger men, at least one is a bit overweight. (I'm 5'8'', 140 lbs) These men tell me that the thin thermorest pads aren't sufficent enough padding for them, as their weight compresses the pad to the point where they feel like they're laying directly on the ground. These men use the inflatable kind and are quite happy with them I believe. One however did tell me his inflatable has a slow leak now and by the middle of the night he wakes up to find he's on the ground again.

As much as I love my thermorest, I think I might be upgrading to an inflatable soon (at least for the colder months of for whenever I get to a trip longer than a few days).

While I do know the benefits that a sleeping pad (inflatable or not) does offer against the cold, I normally don't go out much past October or any earlier than April, so the ground temperature doesn't worry me to much. I don't really use the blanket for anything more than keeping my sleeping bag clean, because I don't use a tent when I camp. I have a lightweight tarp that I either string up with my hiking poles and some stakes and parachute cord, or tie up with the parachute cord between fallen tree branches.

Aside from that, I sleep warm, as my wife tells me, I have an overabundance of body heat generation capabilities, and once I'm alseep, nothing aside from an alarm clock can wake me up. I'm sure things will change in time and then I will investigate picking up a sleeping pad, but for now, I'd prefer to keep the extra weight off my pack since my pack is heavier than what I want it to be and I can't get a new one for another year or so.

“I have been using the silver emergancy blankets under my sleeping bag to keep me warm from the cold and also keep my sleeping bag clean from dirt.”

And

“I don't really use the blanket for anything more than keeping my sleeping bag clean”

This is ironic since these metalized polyester emergency blankets start flaking after a few nights. Then you have these hard-to-get-rid-of flakes all over your bag (and other items).

It’s great you don’t need a pad to sleep soundly. You’re lucky.

-Barry

Very interesting...I've been using the same one all season and haven't had any "flaking" issues at all...other than some dirt that got stuck on it, it's been very reliable...might help that I didn't buy the cheap @$$ ones that cost 97 cents. I actually spent about 8 bucks on this one to make sure it lasted. I did however pick myself up a cheap blue pad to put under the blanket.

“…haven't had any "flaking" issues at all…”
“I actually spent about 8 bucks on this one to make sure it lasted”

This sounds nice. By chance, do you have an internet site of this product?
Thanx,
-Barry

Unfortunately I got it at a local store, but it is similar to the one Coleman makes...
http://yhst-8743696515742.stores.yahoo.net/coembl.html

Hoping to get at least one more season out of it. It's getting a bit of wear from the folding and unfolding.