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Best Sleeping Bags for Side and Stomach Sleepers (vs. Quilts) | Backcountry Pilgrim | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Best Sleeping Bags for Side and Stomach Sleepers (vs. Quilts)
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This content addresses the common challenge of achieving a good night's sleep while backpacking for side and stomach sleepers, offering solutions beyond traditional mummy sleeping bags by recommending specific sleep system components.
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hey it's Doug with Backcountry
pilgrimage Channel all about hiking
camping backpacking in the gear that
goes with it I have a confession to make
I am a side slash stomach sleeper [Music]
ever since the beginning of my
backpacking career I have struggled with
getting good sleep because my preferred
position of sleep is on my stomach with
one leg kicked out and that does not
work well with very many sleeping bag
sizes because sleeping bags rely on your
body heat filling up a pocket of air to
keep you warm they don't like to have a
lot of extra room in them and so many
are a mummy shape which essentially
means you're laying on your back with
your arms down by your sides and this
can be not only fairly uncomfortable but
for people like me who are also a little
bit claustrophobic it can actually be
panic attack inducing and so when I got
restarted in my backpacking a few years
back I switched from a sleeping bag to a
top quilt I have since modified that
system a couple of times and now I'm
ready to give you my recommendations for
what to do for a Sleep System if you're
a side or stomach sleeper alright we're
going to go from the ground up and start
with the Sleep Pad it is vital to to
your comfort if you're going to be on
your stomach or on your side and kind of
curled up and that is because most sleep
pads are 20 inches wide I have here the
Therm-a-Rest z-light sleep pad it is 20
inches wide and so if you can imagine
your entire sleep system is going to
have to fit on this pad now if you
compare this to my Nemo tensor wide pad
which is five inches bigger you can see
that there is quite a bit of difference
the Nemo pad gives me plenty of width
and those extra five inches are really
great for a side sleeper or a stomach
sleeper when you're considering the
width of your sleep pad it's not just a
matter of comfort though it's also a
matter of temperature if your body comes
off of the pad and touches the tent
floor there is basically no insulation
between you and the cold ground and that
makes a huge difference in your overall
temperature experience so the first step
in establishing a good side or stomach
sleep system is getting the extra wide
pads get that extra five inches and that
way you're going to stay on it and stay
insulated when you're rolling around do
keep in mind that the number of persons
that are typically considered to fit in
a tent is usually based on the width of
sleep pads so if you have a two-person
tent it should be at least 40 inches
wide to accommodate two 20 inch pads
they are not considering extra wide pads
in that measurement so if you were going
to try to get two people in a two-person
tent with one or both of you having the
extra wide pads they may not fit okay
the next big consideration when it comes
to your sleep system is of course the
bag or quilt that you are using to
insulate you from the side and on top
now for several years I have been
touting the benefits of the top quilt by
using a quilt instead of a sleeping bag
you can save volume and weight because a
quilt is essentially a big blanket that
is joined together somewhere around the
Torso area but stays open at the top and
this has several advantages when it
comes to size and weight because you're
not paying for insulation and material
under you you're not carrying around the
weight of a zipper or a hood or many of
the other features that a standard
sleeping bag would have the reasoning
behind this is that when you lay down on
a sleeping bag you're crushing all of
the insulation that's under you
rendering it practically useless and if
that's the case why have it there at all
it's just more material and more
insulation that you've got to carry
around but it's not actually keeping you
warm and the biggest benefit for a
stomach or side sleeper is that because
a quilt is not completely bound together
you can very easily kick your legs or
your arms or anything else out that
needs some extra width the quilt isn't
going to be grabbing you because it
isn't joined together in the first place
but that is also one of the biggest
problems with quilts because a quilt is
open-ended it is also very easy to allow
cold dry house to come into the system
now before all you Quilters out there
jump into the comments and start talking
about pad straps and I get it I've been
using a quilt for three years in general
I've been very happy with it but I have
to admit that the quilt works best for
people that can just get in lie down on
their back close their eyes and fall
asleep until they wake up the next
morning that is not me I need to be able
to be on my back on my side on my
stomach leg kicked up leg not kicked up
curled into a ball and when it comes to
that the quilt just doesn't work as well
as a sleeping bag even a very
restrictive mummy style sleeping bag is
meant to move with you even if you roll
over onto your side and when you do
that's when that back insulation that
Quilters will often point out is useless
when you're lying on your back suddenly
becomes very useful as I was planning
for this video my friend Steve from my
life Outdoors put out a short arguing
the quilts were better than sleeping
bags and at one point he rolls over in
the quilt and just before the scene Cuts
you actually see a large portion of his
back get exposed as he's trying to roll
over interestingly almost the same thing
happened in a video by ugq the makers of
my quilt when they were demonstrating
how their system avoids the problem of
drafts you also see that when the person
rolls over the quilt lifts up exposing
his back now ultimately the system ends
up working but this is not a system that
comes with all quilts even the ugq
quilts and as was shown and admitted in
the video it takes a bit of expertise to
really get it to work it doesn't mean
sleeping bags are better than quilts it
just means that quilts aren't absolutely
perfect fortunately there are now
sleeping bag systems that are really
made for side and stomach sleepers I'm
going to show you a couple of the
options right now the sleeping bag I'm
going to talk about is the Nemo disco
the Nemo disco has a nice big Hood it's
got a pocket in here to keep like a cell
phone or something or maybe like your
water filter or batteries that you don't
want to be and exposed to freezing cold
it's got a nice big draft color it's a
down filled sleeping bag it's 650 down
there's an 800 down version with
slightly thinner materials but this one
is a little bit more in my price range
both the Nemo disco and the rift are
rated at 15 degrees so these are very
warm bags which is one of the reasons
that I love these Thermo gills these
really interesting vents these things
unzip and they allow you to vent the top
of the sleeping bag when you're maybe
getting a little too warm they allow you
to take the bags into situations that
aren't quite as cold as they are
potentially rated for and actually
change the temperature rating of the bag
manually so that you can use these bags
in a much wider variety of situations
and not have to just buy more and more
bags for every temperature condition
when it comes to side and stomach
sleeping there are two features I like a
lot one is that the zipper goes almost
all the way to the bottom so
theoretically you could actually get a
leg completely out of here if you need
needed to but the thing that really sets
the Disco and the rift apart from other
sleeping bags is their spoon shape at
the bottom of these sleeping bags the
material actually gets wider and allows
you to move around quite a bit more
without completely sacrificing the
warmth of the volume of the bag when I
am on my side I can actually turn all
the way over onto my stomach and kick a
leg up and I still am inside the
sleeping bag I am able to move around
and stay nice and warm but I am not in a
panic inducing claustrophobic situation
and I can get onto my stomach I still
have a hood that is keeping my head warm
and I can get my arm up into it if I
need to to lay my head on my pillow on
my arm get my arms up keep them down all
of these positions work just fine with
the Nemo disco or its 800 fill brother
the rift another bag with some
Innovative features for side and stomach
sleepers is the Sierra Designs Cloud 20
degree rated sleeping bag this is
something of a hype hybrid between a
quilt and a sleeping bag from top to
bottom like a normal sleeping bag you
have an insulated Hood so you don't have
to carry something extra to keep your
head warm
unlike a sleeping bag instead of a
zipper coming down the side the bag is
basically a folded quilt up on top this
wraps over and inside the bag and seals
up with your own body and that keeps the
top very wide it allows you to move your
arms get them up above your head if
you're on your stomach and although you
might be laying on your stomach or side
the bottom still functions as a regular
sleeping bag because it is enclosed one
of the nice things about a quilt or a
sleeping bag that can zip up from the
bottom is that you can maybe get a foot
out or something if you need to because
often that's where you're going to
overheat a little bit well the Sierra
clouds has another Innovative feature
here and that is a baffle at the bottom
that is actually open you notice right
here we have a folded over piece I can
get all the way inside the bag from
inside I can basically just kind of push
my foot out under the baffle and out the
bottom I can actually lay here as if
this was a blanket and the only part
that's going to be really wrapped around
me is going to be from my waist to about
my ankles another feature about the
cloud 20 that is very quilt-like is that
there is no insulation on the back panel
right here you can actually see through
this because they have not filled it
full of down because typically you're
going to be laying on this now you might
wonder well what happens when I roll
over well the idea with this is to not
roll over with the bag the way you would
with a sleeping bag but more like a
quilt you roll around inside of it but
isn't it going to pop up and isn't this
going to make you cold not necessarily
and that is because this bag comes with
a sleeping pad sleeve you slide this bag
over your sleeping pad and this part
covers the area with no insulation when
you get to the bottom
the bag is now
insulated because it has the sleeping
pad behind it so if you're not only a
side sleeper or a stomach sleeper but a
tosser and a Turner this thing is
fantastic because it keeps the bag stuck
where it's supposed to be you don't have
to worry about rolling over and exposing
some part or rolling the hood over the
top of your head or any of those kinds
of annoying things that often happen in
the back country this is going to make
it a self-contained Sleep System that's
pretty much not going to move once it's
in place the long version will attach to
a 25 inch pad whereas the standard
length is only going to work on a 20.
finally I'd like to suggest the Western
mountaineering Terra light sleeping bag
now for those of you that know sleeping
bags Western mountaineering needs no
introduction these are pretty much the
very best sleeping bags that can be had
if you are looking for the absolute best
of the best this is it now you're going
to pay top price for this but one of the
things that sets the Terra light apart
from other sleeping bags besides the
quality is its usefulness to side and
stomach sleepers and this is because the
bag although a essentially mummy shape
is specially designed to be wider in the
areas where a leg is going to kick out
if you need it to sleep on your stomach
further the zipper goes all the way
around the bottom so you can essentially
open this sleeping bag up and use it
like a blanket or a quilt so it is
extremely versatile extremely
comfortable and it's going to work out
fantastically if you are a side or
stomach sleeper or if you just want to
treat it like a regular mummy bag a good
night's sleep on the trail is so
important that is where you get
recharged and if you get a bad night's
sleep the whole next day is going to be
a lot harder than it needs to be so even
if it means carrying an extra few ounces
or even a couple of pounds extra if it
translates into getting a good night's
sleep those extra pounds or ounces
aren't going to make that much of a
difference to me whereas a good night's
sleep is going to make a world of
difference alright I hope this video has
been helpful to you tell me in the
comments below what you do if you're a
stomach or side sleeper I'm always
interested in a better night's sleep on
the trail and if the video helped you
how about giving it a like subscribe to
Backcountry Pilgrim if you are into
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videos Drop until next time as always
thank you so much for watching [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
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