Sleeping warm

Even though the weather is getting cooler, it doesn't mean we want to stop camping. Here are a few of my favorite tips for sleeping warm:

1) Change your socks. Our feet sweat a lot, even around camp, so try and put a dry pair of socks on before bed.
2) Wear a hat. We lose a lot of heat out of the top of our head, even while asleep.
3) Have a sleeping set of long underwear. Same idea as #1
4) Use a sleeping pad. Much of our heat is lost through convection. Insulating yourself from the cold ground (head to toe) will help.
5) Do some crunches in your bag. You keep your sleeping bag heated, it does not keep you warm, so you need to have some source of warmth. Exercising raises your body heat and if you do the crunches in your bag it will go directly into the space around you. Plus it keeps your abs toned!
6) Hot water bottle. Put hot water in a Nalgene bottle (make sure it is a heat resistant plastic and the lid is on tight!) and then place it in your sleeping bag (at your feet or between your legs is nice). This will create warmth to heat your bag, just as the excercise does. If you are worried about the Nalgene leaking, put the bottle inside a wool sock.
7) Use a liner. A silk, fleece or wool liner adds warmth to your bag.
8) Get up and pee. If you have to go, get up and go. It takes energy to keep holding our urine, plus it is uncomfortable. Once you get up and go, you can get back in your warm bag and sleep soundly again.
9) Sleep in a warmer bag. I sleep cold, so I have a bag rated 10-15 degrees warmer than what the air temperature is. For instance, when the weather is 20 F, I sleep in a 0 degree bag.
10) Zip up. Once you've created all this heat for your bag, you want to hold it in as much as possible. So, zip your sleeping bag up tight around your shoulders or even around your head (in a mummy bag).

I am sure there are many more tips, but these are just a few to get you on your way to year round camping in comfort!
--Deb