A backpacking sleep system refers back to the assortment of substances and clothes used for sleeping in camp. It’s known as a system as a result of the gadgets should work collectively and complement each other to carry out a typical operate. For instance, a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and a pillow are all widespread elements of a sleep system.
A backpacking sleep system can also be one of many Big Three:
- Backpack and Packing System
- Shelter System
- Sleep System
The gear in these classes is normally the heaviest stuff in your backpacking gear listing and offers the perfect bang for the buck by way of gear weight discount if you wish to lighten your load. There are extra programs that backpackers use to categorize gear together with a Clothing System, Electronics and Navigation, Health and Hygiene, Cooking System, and so forth.
Multi-Function Gear
It’s necessary to grasp {that a} single piece of backpacking gear or clothes may need a number of features and be a part of a number of gear programs. For instance, the plastic bag that you simply use as a water-resistant pack liner can be used as a bivy sack to guard your sleeping bag from rain/wind/condensation or as a poncho in an emergency.
There can even be some dependencies between totally different gear programs, particularly between a shelter system and a sleep system. For occasion, most individuals who sleep in a hammock favor a prime quilt and backside quilt for sleep insulation as an alternative of a sleeping bag and inflatable pad as a result of they’re simpler to make use of.
Example Sleep Systems
Here are three pattern sleep programs: one every for tent tenting, tarp tenting, and hammock tenting.
Sleep System for Tent-based Camping
If you camp in a tent, you’re more likely to have a fairly primary sleep system with a sleeping bag or prime quilt, maybe a pillow, a heat hat, and sleeping garments. The temperature scores of most sleeping luggage and quilts additionally assume you’re carrying clothes and a hat which is one purpose to put on them in case you sleep chilly, though they can be used as heat backup clothes in a Clothing System.
- Sleeping bag or prime quilt and pad attachment straps
- Sleeping pad
- Pillow
- Fleece hat
- Long sleeve shirt
- Long underwear bottoms
- Dry Socks
Sleep System for Tarp-based Camping
Sleeping below a tarp, together with a mid (pyramid tarp), is normally far more uncovered than sleeping in a tent as a result of you’ve gotten much less insect, wind, and rain safety. One option to increase a sleep system for tarp tenting to guard your self towards bugs, cold-robbing wind, and rain splashback (below the tarp partitions) is so as to add a sleeping bag cowl or ultralight bivy sack with insect netting over your face and head.
If you sleep with a quilt, many individuals additionally put on an insulated down hoody or hooded jacket to offer their head and shoulders with extra insulation.
- Bivy sack for added heat/wind/insect safety
- Top Quilt
- Quilt pad attachment system
- Down insulated hoody
- Sleeping pad
- Pillow
- Fleece hat
- Long sleeve shirt
- Long underwear bottoms
- Dry Socks
- Earplugs
- Gloves
- Headlamp
Sleep System for Hammock-Based Camping
Many hammock campers favor a prime quilt and an underquilt as an alternative of a sleeping bag and sleeping bag as a result of they’re much less of a battle to make use of if you’re not on the bottom.
- Top quilt
- Underquilt
- Fleece hat
- Long sleeve shirt
- Long underwear bottoms
- Dry Socks
Alternatively, you’ll be able to lie on a foam pad in a hammock for insulation to stop cold-butt syndrome.