View Full Version : 20degree sleeping difficulties ???
2009ThruHiker
11-17-2005, 22:10
My wife and I plan on tenting in the backyard tomorrow night as a practice session for our difficulty with sleeping in cold temps (i.e.20 degrees). The problem is with the cold air that passes into our lungs... it just feels too cold for comfort. The cold air actually feels as though it hurts.
We have mummy sleeping bags, perhaps we're not using them properly??? but the idea of completely closing them up causes uncomfort as well... I think that describes the delimma.
Have any others experienced this or have an idea of what might help with this?:confused:
SGT Rock
11-17-2005, 22:12
Wear a bandanna over your mouth.
Skidsteer
11-17-2005, 22:22
Wear a bandanna over your mouth.
Yep, or wear a neck gaiter and pull it up over you mouth. It may come down as the night wears on, but it will help you fall asleep nevertheless.
MisterSweetie
11-17-2005, 22:35
We have mummy sleeping bags, perhaps we're not using them properly??? but the idea of completely closing them up causes uncomfort as well... I love getting in my mummy and closing it completely. Maybe try it a few nights, and see if it's only the idea that bothers you, or the actual action of it. Maybe you'll find that it's not so bad.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-17-2005, 22:36
I have a knit 'beanie' toboggan that pulls down over my nose and mouth. It keeps my whole head (including face) warm and keeps cold air from hurting my lungs. Of course, it does wonders for my hairstyle :D
Kerosene
11-18-2005, 20:42
A neck gaitor, balaclava, or scarf will pre-heat the air coming into your mouth, but I bet that you won't even need that once you've been outdoors for a few days and your body acclimates to the temperatures.
smokymtnsteve
11-18-2005, 21:08
20 degrees above zero is not cold ;)
your body will adjust in a short period of time.
Alot of good ideas were given. You might try a few. The bandanna is a good one. I close my bag up to about a 4" diameter. I move around the inside of my bag during the night but I keep the opening close to my nose and mouth. I try to keep this opening away from the wind when in a shelter (point away , toward the wall). This did take some getting use to, but on a real cold night I got the hang of it very fast!:D
SGT Rock
11-18-2005, 21:18
20 degrees above zero is not cold ;)
your body will adjust in a short period of time.
Well to me it is :D
But Steve has a point. If you are adjusted to indoors temps common to the US, then outside can be an uncomfortable place. Spend a few days and nights outside when they daytime temps are below 60F and the nightime temps can be below freezing, and when you go back inside, things can seem unreasonably hot. I spent a week and a half on a winter hike one year in the southern Appalachians, at about a week into it the temps got up into the low 60s for the daytime temp - I thought I was going to die from the heat. When I got home, it took me a couple of days to adjust to the sauna that my in-laws house felt like.
I think you may find that when you do finally go out and do some cold weather hiking, 20F will be good sleeping weather.
RITBlake
11-18-2005, 23:57
hike 20 miles THEN try to fall asleep in your 20 degree baby. you'll sleep like a baby
smokymtnsteve
11-19-2005, 00:02
getting out of a warm cozy sleeping bag on a chilly morning..
now that's painful
RITBlake
11-19-2005, 00:25
getting out of a warm cozy sleeping bag on a chilly morning..
now that's painful
getting out of a warm cozy sleeping bag on a chilly, rainy morning, knowing that you have to put wet socks on over your blistered feet....thats not painful, thats a thru hike baby!
getting out of a warm cozy sleeping bag on a chilly, rainy morning, knowing that you have to put wet socks on over your blistered feet....thats not painful, thats a thru hike baby!
Are you guys still taking donations?? Id love to buy you new socks so you dont have to put on wet ones....
LOL, MarcnNJ, save your money, you'll need them for your own extra socks. You will put on wet socks some time during your hike, even if you have extras. How are things in good ole Atlantic County, NJ? Met my husband down there on Hwy 9 near the circle outside Ocean City.
Nightwalker
11-19-2005, 15:41
Are you guys still taking donations?? Id love to buy you new socks so you dont have to put on wet ones....
Save the dry socks for sleeping in. Then the wet ones in the morning aren't so bad. Get used to--and hope for--wet socks, as they're much better than dry springs!
LOL, MarcnNJ, save your money, you'll need them for your own extra socks. You will put on wet socks some time during your hike, even if you have extras. How are things in good ole Atlantic County, NJ? Met my husband down there on Hwy 9 near the circle outside Ocean City.
I live 2 miles from that circle....
Nameless
11-22-2005, 17:50
Get used to living in 50 to 60 below zero for a month or two at a time, twenty above will feel like heaven :) (gosh, when it reaches ten below here for the first time in the spring we stop wearing our coats... just dont need them anymore (well, they go on after a day or two, but the first day the cold snap lifts it feels like its nintey out))
But really, when it gets extremely cold out (usually about twenty below for me), enough to hurt, change your breathing patterns.
You need the air warmed before you reach your lungs otherwise it will chill your core and get your entire body cold, and be painful. You can try breathing out of your mouth, but dont breath as quickly so the air has time to warm up on your tounge. Sticking your tounge slightly forward can help. But, dont breath like that for long because your mouth will cool down, switch back to your nose, letting your mouth warm up, then when your nose starts cooling down too much switch back to your mouth. Just always be breathing in such a way that it warms the air.
Scarves, bacalava, neck gaitors, can all make a huge difference and keep you warm in the coldest of tempuratures, but be wary of condensation when it gets truely cold. Above zero its not a huge problem because your breathing will keep the condisation from freezing. The condinsation will even work for you some because it can start warming the air before it reaches you. But, when it gets truely cold, at least 30 below, thats not always true. Condensation can freeze on the scarf or whatever you are wearing and stop warming the air.
Just keep the air warm and you will stay warm :)
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