View Full Version : cold sleeper needs help...
i'm a cold sleeper. by that i mean that i always have to bundle up to get warm when i sleep. but then my body warms up while i'm asleep and i start sweating buckets. i usually wake up drenched. i always have a spare shirt handy in the tent.
but the thing is it sucks enough waking up soaked on a fairly warm night in florida. i can imagine how it might feel on a 20 degree night in the smokies.
i've thought of using a vapor barrier, but that's for REALLY cold conditions, isn't it?
i'm sure i'm not the only cold sleeper among us. anyone else deal with this?
and how do you deal with it?
thanks
TV
Couple of suggestions, do a little exercise & / or drink a hot cider before going to bed so your core temp is already warm, and sleep in less clothing / insulation
I do not think a vapor barrier will help, but you can try it out by sleeping in your rain gear.
BTW, a cold sleeper will feel cold while sleeping at night.
if i don't wear some clothes at night, i will be very cold, that's why i said i'm a cold sleeper. i need them in order to feel warm enough to fall asleep.
but then i get too hot after i fall asleep and don't wake up to pull down the bag.
be a man. sleep in the leaves. eat the bugs that dare scale your body.
skinewmexico
03-30-2009, 20:20
if i don't wear some clothes at night, i will be very cold, that's why i said i'm a cold sleeper. i need them in order to feel warm enough to fall asleep.
but then i get too hot after i fall asleep and don't wake up to pull down the bag.
Well if you already know what advice you don't want to hear, what advice would you like to hear? What kind of sleeping bag are you using?
Tipi Walter
03-30-2009, 20:40
Well if you already know what advice you don't want to hear, what advice would you like to hear? What kind of sleeping bag are you using?
Yeah, you've got to supply ALOT more information: what bag, what pad, clothing worn, the works.
I'm about the farthest thing from a cold sleeper there is, fortunately, but sleeping warm has a lot to do with technique, so here's some generalities.
-Note your bodies physiology, and where you lose a lot of heat: Generally where there is a lot of blood near the surface of your skin: Your head, face and neck, your wrists, feet, armpits and groin. What can help a LOT is to carry some small and lightweight, but carefully applied clothing, such as a balaclava, some warm socks and a down vest.
-Remember also that your system shouldn't have 'holes' in it: For example, it doesn't matter if you did almost everything right... yet you have no dry socks and your feet are freezing. Even if the other 95% of your body is perfectly warm, you'll sleep like crap. Or if you have a 0 degree bag, but a thin, worn out pad and you're camping on cold, hard ground. Make sure all your bases are covered. When I Winter camp, it doesn't matter if I have my fluffy down bag, thick pad and 4-season tent: If I forget my little 1.3 oz balaclava, my face and nose are freezing cold and I sleep horribly.
-Ultimately, a sleeping bag by itself doesn't keep you warm: YOU keep yourself warm- All a sleeping bag does is trap heat that your body generates. If you are dehydrated, hungry, have low blood sugar, all these things can drastically reduce your ability to generate metabolic heat. It sounds funny, but I've occasionally found that a Snickers bar or a good meal is one of the warmest and most important components of my sleep system.
-Your body loses a great deal of heat through evaporative heat loss: When moisture on your skin evaporates. (To see in action, lick your wrist, then blow on it- Feels cold.) This is referred to as 'evaporative cooling.' Your body always has moisture on it's skin even when not sweating, but you can negate some of the unwanted effects of evaporative cooling by: Always sleep with a dry layer against your skin, preferably one that's close fitting, but not tight. For the same reasons, don't go to bed sweaty. If you're warm or sweating, it's a good idea to cool down a bit before putting on fresh clothes or getting in your bag.
-As you sleep, you can lose a great deal of your heat through conduction: When your body is in direct physical contact with surfaces colder than yourself. A lot of attention is given to sleeping bags, but an equally crucial part of a warm sleeping system is your pad, which eliminates some of the conductive heat loss between yourself and the ground. Doesn't matter if you've got an arctic bag, without a warm pad, you can still freeze your tush off, particularly on hard or packed down surfaces.
-Convective heat loss: I have never studied physics, and I know there's different kinds of convective heat loss, but in this case would refer to the removal of body heat by a moving air mass. (Adjective heat loss?) If you're alive, the surface of your skin is warm, as is a small area immediately adjacent to it. External forces such as wind can remove this 'bubble' of heat from around you- Notice how you feel warmer in calm conditions than windy ones, even if the ambient temperature is the same, or how in windy conditions, a 2 oz. windshirt can make you feel warmer than a heavy soft-shell fleece that the wind cuts right through. So maintaining a calm, static air mass around yourself will go a long way: One reason a tent tends to be warmer than an open tarp shelter. This can be accomplished in other ways, such as adding a light bivy or overbag to your sleep system and choosing a naturally sheltered site out of the wind.
-For some of the reasons above, your campsite will have a tremendous affect on how you sleep. What's interesting, is that some of the seemingly great campsites are in fact, the worst: Such as low areas near water (next to a creek, perhaps). Cool air sinks, and areas lower than adjacent terrain, even slightly, may form VERY cold sinks at night- As anyone can tell you who's ridden a bicycle or motorcycle along a road at night, random cold spots are very common. Water in the immediate area will add humidity to the air, potentially giving you that extra chill. Camping on green vegetation such as grass will also increase humidity and will likely cause condensation. Camping on hard, compact, well used earth can also be very cold. Conversely, loose unpacked earth, a layer of dry needles, etc. are naturally insulating in the same way a sleeping pad is.
-When I'm loking for a campsite, I look for natural cover (say, under a healthy tree), high ground (which will drain well and will tend to be warmer, drier and less humid), untrampled surfaces such as needles or uncompacted soil (LEAVE NO TRACE!), and away from lots of green vegetation.
This stuff works! I remember one night in particular in North Cascades National Park where I ran into two guys who complained bitterly about freezing their butts off the night before, and waking up to sleeping bags and tent soaked from condensation after camping in a grassy meadow next to a creek. I had been LESS THAN 1/4 MILE AWAY, away from the water, about 50' higher, on dry needles under a big Western Hemlock and had been so warm I spent the night halfway out of my sleeping bag with no shelter set up, and woke up warm and dry.
Hope this helps.
LIhikers
03-30-2009, 21:54
Here's a couple of suggestions you might try
1. Instead of wearing a lot of clothing to sleep in just wear a light weight layer and also wear a light weight hat.
2. Put a bottle of hot water into your sleeping bag about 15 minutes before you climb in, it'll prewarm the sleeping bag and continue to give off heat for a while.
Go to sleep cool. Your body will heat up. I wear a lightweight fleece pullover to bed that I can zip down. I also use a fleece blanket over my sleeping bag. Remember that cold tends to come from underneath you
Blissful
03-31-2009, 13:42
You need to invest in a good sleeping bag with accurate ratings. The cheap junk sleeps cold. Also, wear a hat to bed. And the pad you use for insulation from the ground matters.
berninbush
03-31-2009, 14:06
Most of the advice in this thread seems to be geared toward cold sleepers, which the original poster said he was... but reading what he said, I'm not so sure.
I consider myself a "cold sleeper" but in the opposite way. I feel warm when I first go to bed. I tend to fall asleep for thirty minutes or an hour, and wake up shivering. Basically my body is warm when I'm up and moving, but my core temperature drops precipitously once I stop. Wearing a hat helps a lot.
The OP almost sounds what I'd call a "warm sleeper"-- even though he starts out cold, his real problem is with overheating once he's asleep. So his core temperature is higher when asleep than when awake. What he needs is advice on how not to overheat himself once his initial chill wears off.
thanks all for your replies. some good advice given.
berninbush, you have a good point.
The way I understand the OP's first post is that he goes to sleep cold , is using a sleeping bag that does wam him up and therefore is too hot for the rest of the night, so he starts sweatting. I have seen that often enough when people don't cover themselves up at camp so get into the bag to "warm up" , in my opinion when possible you should be just as warm in your clothing as you will be in your bag.
The other common problem is an isufficient bottom insulation combined with a too hot sleeping bag/clothing.
Pretty much what Bleach describes in detail.
So maybe washing the sweat down (IE have a clean body), warming up with a brisk walk and or a hot drink and having adeguate bottom insulation will fix that.
BTW my wife used to have exactly the same problem as TV but of course never tried my sugestion. She does not hike anymore...
Franco
berninbush
03-31-2009, 23:14
Makes sense, Franco.
And I think for me, the advice is the opposite. I need to be still and let my body cool down before I try to go to sleep. Otherwise I fall asleep with insufficient clothing/ sleeping bag, and then I wake up a short while later shivering, and it's hard to get warm again. If I start out with a cooler core temperature, I'll bundle up *before* I fall asleep and stand a better chance of sleeping soundly.