A backpacking sleep system refers back to the assortment of substances and clothes used for sleeping in camp. It’s known as a system as a result of the objects need to work collectively and complement each other to carry out a typical operate. For instance, a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and a pillow are all frequent parts of a sleep system.
A backpacking sleep system can also be one of many Huge Three:
- Backpack and Packing System
- Shelter System
- Sleep System
The gear in these classes is often the heaviest stuff in your backpacking gear record and gives the very best bang for the buck by way of gear weight discount if you wish to lighten your load. There are further programs that backpackers use to categorize gear together with a Clothes System, Electronics and Navigation, Well being and Hygiene, Cooking System, and so forth.
Multi-Operate Gear
It’s necessary to know {that a} single piece of backpacking gear or clothes may need a number of features and be a part of a number of gear programs. For instance, the plastic bag that you simply use as a water-resistant pack liner may also be used as a bivy sack to guard your sleeping bag from rain/wind/condensation or as a poncho in an emergency.
There will even be some dependencies between completely different gear programs, particularly between a shelter system and a sleep system. As an example, most individuals who sleep in a hammock choose a prime quilt and backside quilt for sleep insulation as a substitute of a sleeping bag and inflatable pad as a result of they’re simpler to make use of.
Instance Sleep Techniques
Listed below are three pattern sleep programs: one every for tent tenting, tarp tenting, and hammock tenting.
Sleep System for Tent-based Tenting
In case you camp in a tent, you’re prone to have a reasonably fundamental sleep system with a sleeping bag or prime quilt, maybe a pillow, a heat hat, and sleeping garments. The temperature rankings of most sleeping luggage and quilts additionally assume you’re sporting clothes and a hat which is one cause to put on them for those who sleep chilly, though they may also be used as heat backup clothes in a Clothes System.
- Sleeping bag or prime quilt and pad attachment straps
- Sleeping pad
- Pillow
- Fleece hat
- Lengthy sleeve shirt
- Lengthy underwear bottoms
- Dry Socks
Sleep System for Tarp-based Tenting
Sleeping beneath a tarp, together with a mid (pyramid tarp), is often far more uncovered than sleeping in a tent as a result of you might have much less insect, wind, and rain safety. One strategy to increase a sleep system for tarp tenting to guard your self in opposition to bugs, cold-robbing wind, and rain splashback (beneath the tarp partitions) is so as to add a sleeping bag cowl or ultralight bivy sack with insect netting over your face and head.
In case you sleep with a quilt, many individuals additionally put on an insulated down hoody or hooded jacket to offer their head and shoulders with further insulation.
- Bivy sack for added heat/wind/insect safety
- Prime Quilt
- Quilt pad attachment system
- Down insulated hoody
- Sleeping pad
- Pillow
- Fleece hat
- Lengthy sleeve shirt
- Lengthy underwear bottoms
- Dry Socks
- Earplugs
- Gloves
- Headlamp
Sleep System for Hammock-Based mostly Tenting
Many hammock campers choose a prime quilt and an underquilt as a substitute of a sleeping bag and sleeping bag as a result of they’re much less of a battle to make use of while you’re not on the bottom.
- Prime quilt
- Underquilt
- Fleece hat
- Lengthy sleeve shirt
- Lengthy underwear bottoms
- Dry Socks
Alternatively, you’ll be able to lie on a foam pad in a hammock for insulation to forestall cold-butt syndrome.