How to Pack and Use Your Sleeping Bag for Warm Nights

USING A SLEEPING BAG & PACKING IT

All sleeping bags come with stuff sacks. However, many people don’t understand that a stuff sack is made to hold the sleeping bag stuffed into it. I get phone calls from people asking how to get the bag into the stuff sack; I then ask if they have rolled it up as tight as possible and they say yes. I then tell them that they will more than likely have a heart attack before they succeed. I then tell them to take one end of the sleeping bag and put it in the stuff sack and put more in behind the original stuffing and push it to the bottom and just continue to stuff the bag into the stuff sack always pushing the bag to the bottom as much as possible. They then find that this stuffing of the bag into the stuff sack works.

Now let us talk about how best the sleeping bag will work for you; this depends on the sleeping bag having a proper temperature rating, as Wiggy bags do.

All of the materials used for the Wiggy’s bags to include the shell and lining fabrics as well as the insulation are synthetic and therefore are not affected by moisture in any of its forms; vapor, liquid of frost. The materials may get wet but the performance specifically of the insulation; Lamilite the single most important component never stops doing what its purpose is; to stifle the heat that one produces while in the sleeping bag from getting out. This is a very significant attribute; why (?) becauseif the heat your body is producing gets out of the bag a series of actions take place that will further contribute to not sleeping. You have consumed a significant meal and the food you have consumed is actually the fuel for a living animal human or otherwise. The slower the heat leaves the sleeping bag the slower your body metabolizes or consumes the fuel. The slower the fuel is consumed the longer you will stay warm within the sleeping bag and as a consequence the longer you will sleep. If, the heat within the sleeping bag moves out of the bag quickly the more rapid your body will metabolize the food or fuel you have put in it. The body functions independent of your desirers and your body is always working at equalizing the heat movement away from it. The slower the heat movement away from your body the slower the heat production and conversely the fast the heat movement away from the body, the faster the heat production. If you have gone to sleep and after about 2 to 3 hours you find yourself waking up because you are beginning to experience being cold it is a direct result of having consumed all of your fuel, i.e. food.

If the sleeping bag you are using is rated for say zero degrees and it happens to be a Wiggy bag, and you are in a tent on a decent ground pad (the Wiggy ground pad is exceptional), you will note that you have slept basically for 8 hours. The specific reason is the insulation. Quilted bags do not trap the user’s body heat as effectively, and when they are exposed to water the water gets trapped along the quilt lines. The water then absorbs heat, further cooling the person in the sleeping bag. That is another reason why the person is cold and not sleeping. THERE ARE NO SUCH PEOPLE WHO ARE COLD SLEEPERS. YOU DO NOT SLEEP WHEN YOU ARE COLD!

To this day I am asked for lighter weight and more compactable sleeping bags and my stock answer is a question. Just tell me the coldest temperature that you intend to experience and I will advise you which bag is best suited for your purpose. Then of course I am asked if my bag will fit into the sleeping bag pocket of such and such backpack. I tell them that it probably will not, and I suggest that they tie the sleeping bag to either the top or bottom of the pack.

To review; stuff the sleeping bag in the stuff sack, understand that you are the heat source and that the sleeping bag is made to contain the heat you produce for as long as possible and that the source of your fuel is the food you consume.

HAPPY CAMPING!