Am I the only one

[yerbyray]

I put my Thermarest pad inside my sleeping bag. I don't slip off of it. I minimize the risk of puncturing it. I don't slip and slide around the tent floor when I am in the tent. I don't slip off of it when I am in the hammock. I stay warm this way.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Hikes in Rain]

Not if it's working for you. Does it fit well inside? Haven't tried it, but I remember mine as being wider than the bag.

[Another Kevin]

Big Agnes sleeping bags are designed for doing just that. They have a sleeve where the pad goes, and little or no insulation underneath.

[Feral Bill]

If it works for you, it is not wrong. Are you a back sleeper? I can't see this working for a side sleeper, at least using a hood.

[July]

I do a variation of this in that I stake my bivy sack out, place neo inside the bivy with bag on top. Bivy keeps the pad secure plus I can roll and turn during the night keeping my hood oriented to face, etc... If it works for ya, stick with it.

[yerbyray]

Not if it's working for you. Does it fit well inside? Haven't tried it, but I remember mine as being wider than the bag.

Yeah it does fit inside but I have a large Cats Meow and Kelty Lightyear bags.

[yerbyray]

If it works for you, it is not wrong. Are you a back sleeper? I can't see this working for a side sleeper, at least using a hood.

I move around more than the audience of Soul Train when I sleep but it sort of stays in place as I move inside.

[Just Bill]

I put my Thermarest pad inside my sleeping bag. I don't slip off of it. I minimize the risk of puncturing it. I don't slip and slide around the tent floor when I am in the tent. I don't slip off of it when I am in the hammock. I stay warm this way.

Am I doing something wrong?

Yar, you're a real failure on this one, seriously. What kinda yim-yam comes up with an idea, puts some thought into it, and then tests it out. In a tent and a hammock no less. Then has the audacity to say that it has worked for them and based on that "experience" chooses to stick with it. I'm really surprised you had enough self respect left to start this thread.

Now with the serious stuff outta the way let's talk silly-
If you're wrong anywhere it's that you have a big enough bag to make this work.
But that sorta wrong is only wrong if you're talking SUL really. You're sorta wasting some bag volume and insulation, but seeing as you seem to be pretty happy with it, nothing wrong I see.

Only thing to share is that you use a large volume bag, which I see you did share and so about the only thing you did wrong was not pass along that this trick only works if you're bean pole skinny or use a large volume bag.

[Hikes in Rain]

Not if it's working for you. Does it fit well inside? Haven't tried it, but I remember mine as being wider than the bag.

Yeah it does fit inside but I have a large Cats Meow and Kelty Lightyear bags.

Thanks, that makes sense. I have the WM 45* bag, which is a little tight, and couldn't imagine my pad fitting in there with me.

[Slo-go'en]

Yes, you might be the only one

I can't see that working for me. I don't think my pad would fit inside my bag and I really don't think both the pad and I would fit together. However, in the summer I use my bag like a quilt draped over me and the pad, but that's not quite the same as trying to zipper up with it inside.

[Franco]

Yes most don't do it simply because their mat does not fit inside their sleeping bag .
I mean you can't fit the bag and yourself inside...(on the right)
However ,well before BA came about , there where top bags of the type where the bottom is a sleeve designed to hold a mat. (Western Mountaineering had a couple of those too, called Pods)
In the case of my 20 year old Macpac , it only takes a 1" thick mat . (the one on the left)
Mats-inside-sb_zps65266a43.jpg

[Colter]

I put my Thermarest pad inside my sleeping bag. I don't slip off of it. I minimize the risk of puncturing it. I don't slip and slide around the tent floor when I am in the tent. I don't slip off of it when I am in the hammock. I stay warm this way.

Am I doing something wrong?

I have done that a bunch of times with sleeping pads although I can't specifically recall using a Thermarest that way. I think it can be warmer with that method.

I think lack of sleeping bag volume is a common deal-breaker with that method, though.

[illabelle]

I have a Big Agnes with the sleeve. My sleeping pad fits pretty tight in the sleeve, so that the bag isn't able to relax around my body. So it creates large air spaces that are very difficult to heat. If one purpose of the sleeve is to reduce heat loss, it doesn't work for me with my current setup.
Second problem is that if I need to sit up and get anything that isn't right by my head, like maybe a drink of water, I have to bend the entire Thermarest with me. It's like having a board (or a large piece of cardboard) strapped to my back. I find this annoying.
The sleeve does work to keep the pad in place.

[Crash]

Once in a while I will put my Big Agnes insul Aircore inside. My body is warming the pad up and the sleeping bag keeps the pad insulated. Great in cold weather, not so great in warm weather. I think the pad really does its insulating job best inside not fully exposed to the cold ground and air.
As a side sleeper I am not loosing my pad when I roll around. It's especially good in my hammock this way.


Sent from my iPod touch.

[yerbyray]

I'm glad to see that I am not alone in my insane method of sleeping soundly. As for voids....I am 6'1'' and just north of 300# so when I get in a sleeping bag, I get in a bag. There isn't anything ultra-light weight about me except my wallet.

I have never noticed it being "confining" with the pad inside. Some folks mention the stiffness and lack of mobility, I will take that any day over slipping and sliding around on the tent floor and on the pad but so far I haven't experienced it.

I do sleep on my side and I just do a shift inside and everything stays in place. I use a Thermarest Prolite IV Large and a Cats Meow (it is a very large model that I bought in the early 90's from Campmor and still has a lot of life left in it) on most excursions. I am going to try out Z-rest I bought off here and see how it does very soon.

When you are a big guy the term "light" weight and "ultra light" weight cannot be compared to ya'll skinny anorexia looking folks. Clothes weigh more, sleeping items weigh more, etc. My base weight is 20 to 25 pounds depending on what I use for shelter. This is much lighter than the 45-50# pack I use to haul around great distances as I trimmed weight with better stove, water filtration, and other upgrades.

Thanks for the feedback

[brancher]

I put my Thermarest pad inside my sleeping bag. I don't slip off of it. I minimize the risk of puncturing it. I don't slip and slide around the tent floor when I am in the tent. I don't slip off of it when I am in the hammock. I stay warm this way.

Am I doing something wrong?

No Way, dude!!

I use a quilt, left the sleeping bag world long ago. I put a four loops on each long edge of the quilt, and in colder temps and winter I put elastic straps and pack hooks around the pad to position the quilt on top of the pad. It works great! BTW, I also shake the quilt to position the down to so down is not under the pad, which adds temp tolerance. All that warmth and goodness in a 19 oz sleeping quilt!

But as somebody else said, it isn't that new an idea -- BA has been doing it for awhile, and Western Mountaineering had a bag a few years ago with a pad sleeve. I'm sure the idea will come back around as soon as the companies need to boos sales again....