The beauty about camping is enjoying the experience of living outside amongst nature but you want to enjoy it where you can be a little comfortable at the same time.
How to make your tent more comfortable?
- What is the best thing to sleep on
- Good Quality Sleeping Bag
- Pitch In A Good Area
Dont Have Heavy Meals- Warm Up Your Sleeping Bag
- A Hot Drink Before Bed
- Always Pack A Hot Water Bottle
- Try And Keep Mosquitos Away
- Sleep At A Reasonable Time
- Drink Something Warm
- Prepare Food That Is Portable
- Necessary Equipment
In this post I’m going to cover some things that you will need in order to make your tenting experience alot more comfortable.
1. What is the best thing to sleep on when camping
When you go camping laying down on the ground is not something that would be comfortable at all. During the daytime it feels like it’s the natural thing to do if you are into that. Otherwise you will need to lay down more then just a blanket on the ground, and then place your sleeping bag on top of it.
You will need to understand that during the night time the tempreture will certainly drop and if your sleeping on bare ground you will get rather cold rather quickly.
Your tent will have a bottom lining that you lay on the ground on top of the the tent flooring I would highly suggest using a sleeping pad. Standard sleeping pads will be packed with some stuffing that would be good enough to keep the cold from the ground away from your body. You want to invest in a footprint that has some good quality padding to keep the cold out and on the ground.
There are many different sleeping pads in the market these days I have written about different footprints in this article have a read just click here.
On top of the sleeping pad place down a blanket that is thick enough that will help keep your body warm then a good quality sleeping bag on top of that. This way these two main objects will keep your body off the ground so you stay warm.
Try this out, during the day time if the sun is out and it is hot, lay down on the ground and you will find the ground is cool. So imagine when the tempreture drops at night you will be cold and you certainly will not have a comfortable sleep.
2. Good quality sleeping bag
The most important part is where your going to sleep for the night. The last thing you want to be doing is sleeping in an area where it’s rough and don’t forget at night the temperature does drop so your going to need to be warm.
A well padded sleeping bag will certainly do the trick on keeping warm, and comfortable while you lay on the footprint in your tent.
There are many different sleeping bags on the market these days how do you know what kind of sleeping bag to buy? There are many factors that come into play when your choosing a good quality sleeping bag.
You will need to consider the following:
Temperature
Synthetic vs down insulation
Lightweight
One thing you will need to know is that there is a difference between a backpack sleeping bag and a sleeping bag for camping. The main difference is the amount of room available with a sleeping bag for camping.
You will need to know what your looking for and what you would rather buy when you go camping.
Temperature: a sleeping bag would need to have a temperature lower than what you usually are used to so when the temperature drops the sleeping bag would need to keep the warmth inside and be able to withstand the temperature drop.
Synthetic vs down insulation: You will need to take into consideration the type of packing that is used in your sleeping bag of choice. When it comes to the down Insulation, it is alot more light and compressible so if you are a hiker it can be compressed down well and packed towards the bottom of the bag and still have plenty of room. With the down insulation it is more durable and can last upto at least 10 years. The down insulation might be a little more expensive when it comes to packing your sleeping bag, but it would be worth it. The downfall would be the fact that it loses the ability to insulate whenever it is wet.
With the synthetic insulation when it is wet it’s insulated well, it dries up alot more quicker then the down insulation. The synthetic insulation compresses well but the down insulation wins in this department. When the synthetic filling gets wet, it can maintain some of the warmth, it makes more sense to keep your sleeping bag as dry as much as possiable, but when it comes to the sleeping bag for some reason getting wet the synthetic comes out alot more comfortable when it does get wet.
Weight: the weight of your sleeping bag is important as if your going backpacking you will need something alot more lighter, compared to going camping as you can add a little weight to the sleeping bag but again not too much.
3. Pitch in a good area
Finding a good area to pitch your tent adds to a good experience when your camping. Its quite easy to see an area that is open and spaces and be tempted to simply pitch your tent there but you will need to take weather into consideration.
The last thing you want to do is get caught up in strong winds attacking your tent from all angles you’ll be quite vulnerable. Your tent could get blown away or even your frame could snap and collapse in on you.
It’s good to find an area where the ground is level, behind some larger rocks would certainly do well just in case it does get windy the rocks will break the wind and force it away from the tent.
It certainly wouldn’t be a great idea to place the tent directly under a tree only because you will not know the state of the branches on the tree so the last thing you want is a branch falling off and landing on your tent roof, it could potentially rip your tent and if it begins to rain then you certainly will be in trouble.
If it possible when you do pitch your tent check to make sure that the ground is not too wet, the last thing you want is to pitch your tent in an area where it dips a little and collects rainwater that will certainly just flood your tent.
The other reason is just in case you do pitch your tent in an area where it does get damp rather quickly. If you can lay down a tarp on the ground first, The pitch your tent it will certainly help keep any moisture or water out of the tent room underneath, and help keep it dry and less cold air rising from the ground.
4. How to stay warm in your sleeping bag
There are a few tricks that can certainly help when your trying to stay warm or even help warm your sleeping bag up.
Make sure that you wear a woollen hat to help cover the crown of your head and your forehead as when you sleep at night the temperature will drop and your head will begin to get cold.
Take some energy snack bars along with you and eat a few before heading to sleep. The reason for this is that it will help keep your body working through the night which will In turn help keep your body heated up.
Another way of staying warm while you sleep, is by making sure that you cover your head with a woollen hat. This will help keep the heat escaping from the top of your head. Make sure you go to the toilet before going to sleep as in you empty your bladder the reason for this is because it helps you keep your body heat from escaping.
5. Dont have heavy meals
When it comes to camping you want to avoid eating heavy meals, this will just cause you to sleep quickly and it will slow you down. It is better to have a snack before going to sleep to keep the heat inside of you while your sleeping. A heavy meal will require your body to begin to break down the food, which in turn will make your body begin to sweat if that happens you will get cold during the night.
6. Warm up your sleeping bag
During the night your sleeping bag will get cold, another way to keep the heat trapped inside of your sleeping bag is by padding it up with items of clothing that will help keep your bag warm.
Where the lining is thin in your bag you can place clothing there to keep the heat from escaping during the night. You will probably find that you will need to carry an extra clothing or two to do this.
7. A hot drink before bed
It is tempting to have a hot drink before going to bed, try and avoid having a cup of coffee as you will be having caffeine within your body or sugar. If you can use a tea, but a tea that helps you sleep at night, lavender or chamomile works best. When i take chamomile within 30 minutes i tend to drop off to bed it will help you sleep through the night.
8. Always pack a hot water bottle
Camping is different from backpacking, with camping you can use your car to drive to a camp site and park up and you’ll be able to carry more. If you want to take a hot water bottle along that will help you keep your sleeping bag warm aswell.
You want to fill your hard plastic bottle of water with hot water, you can place this at the bottom of your sleeping bag to keep your feet warm, if its to hot then wrap an item of clothing around it to help keep your sleeping bag warm at night.
9. Try and keep mosquitos away
During the day time keep a lavender bug spray handy and spray it around your tent to keep them away as it keeps insects and mosquitos away from your tent. Insects and mosquitos tend to stay away from lavendar it basically repells them.
Double check your tent and make sure that there are no holes, if you do find any holes patch them up before you set out on your camping trip. Even check the seams of your tent and make sure that they are covered up and there are no holes of any sort.
If you want to be a little bit more safer you could use a mosquito netting that will certainly help keep out the mosquitos, and it will help give you a peace of mind when you sleep at night.
10. Sleep at a reasonable time
Our bodies have been designed to wake up at a certain time and to sleep at a certain time. When your camping outdoors your body will naturally get in line with nature.
When the sun rises your body will naturally wake up as the sun will shine through your tent and automatically wake your body up. When the sun sets your body and mind begin to feel tired and you want to sleep. So going to bed at a reasonable time while you camp will certainly make your time camping alot more comfortable.
11. Drink something warm
The most common drink most people take with them is coffee, to keep warm during the cold nights a d it wakes them up in the morning. If you want to have a comfortable nights sleep try and drink a warm chamomile tea as the chamomile plant helps you relax more so in turn will help you sleep better.
When you drink something warm it sends to your body a signal that it’s time to relax and sleep this will help you got to sleep at night.
12. Prepare food that is portable
You can always certainly Prepare food that is portable I mean by preparing food like sandwiches to go with you to go camping. Sandwiches will fill you up enough for your body to break down the sandwich in order to give you the right amount of energy for your body, and it will certainly help your throughout the day until you sit down for a evening meal around the campfire.
13. Necessary equipment
If you want to have a good experience camping you will need to make sure that you carry the necessary equipment that will help you get out if a tight spot.
The necessary equipment will be things like some rope, headlamp, pliers, camping knife, Swiss army knife some patches for the tent extra zips.
What I’ve mentioned above is just some ideas these will help you get out any situation you might be stuck in.