Sleeping warm as toast

[Digby]

I was once told that if you have cold feet at night in a sleeping bag, it's a good idea to put on another layer of clothing on your top half, or to put on a hat. It seems to work!

Have you any similar tips?

[Marmot]

If i have cold feet at night i usually zip up my sleeping bag

[Geddi]

Hehe, i usually try and find somebody to "share body heat with"
The reason you get cold extremeities first is cause the blood is taken back to try and heat your centre of mass, so if you help heating up your body your body is then able to heat up the rest of you.

[Marmot]

when i got hyperthermia out on dartmoor, (long story involving a not waterproof bothy bag and a stream) i placed one of those hot pad hand warmer things on my chest, as soon as my heart was being warmed by external forces it was able to help warm up the rest of my body

[Digby]

Hehe, i usually try and find somebody to "share body heat with".
Wearing long-johns is also a good way to keep your lower half warm - though it may be incompatible with your methods... ;)

[Raging Sheep]

when i got hyperthermia out on dartmoor, (long story involving a not waterproof bothy bag and a stream)
You can't just leave it like that. Confession time!

[Marmot]

Sorry, i must have missed this one.
I was out on dartmoor on a wild country training course, and being over confident me i thought id make it harder by taking with an old bothy bag our venture unit had dug up - to see what it was like.
We'd camped in this steep sided stream gully, right in the middle of beyond - quite a group of us as due to poor weather conditions all the trianing groups had met up to share resources.
Id never camped in a bothy bag before so i thought id sleep in this small depression next to a bolder we'd put a diding shelter against to cook our supper.
That night it rained, i mean really rained. We were pretty near the source of the stream but by the next moring the water level had risen by several feet.
Anyway, picture this, me in a gully, on a steep sided river channel, there was water, lots of moving water.
As i was asleep i handt noticed it building up bedind me, as i was blocking this depression, that is until it slopped over the side onto me and my sleeping bag - to make matters worse, where my feet where the area of flat land had turned to marsh on which my feet were resting - and being a bothy - with a zip at the bottom (i doint get that at all) i had very wet feet indeed!

From there i crawled into the porch of the tent in which a mate was sleeping in, i porched it first cause my mate is actually one of the scout leaders, and there were all these rules about me at 15 et al... any this tent was a one man, but i was getting cold so i finnally crawled into his tent socking wet, shivering, very irational and moody.

A while later more people were moving around cause they were pitched on the "flood plane" of this stream and the water level was continuing to rise. i then moved into another tent and then placed that heat pad on my chest. i could feel the heat coursing through my body - i now always carry it around with me. when i go on hikes

[jbgraham]

If the temperatures are below freezing, I will use a vapor barrier liner in the bag. I like to wear pile booties on my feet in the bag in winter. A hat of course is logical, but if I know I have a problem, like cold feet when I get into the bag, boiled water in a nalgene bottle makes a good foot warmer. Sometimes, the cold feet don't come until 2:30 in the morning, when the metabolism is at it's lowest ebb. I'll drink a cup of cocoa, then pour the rest of the boiled water out of the thermos bottle in a small nalgene and have a hot bottle right when I need it.

[Marmot]

A hat isnt holy logical, its only affective when your standing as your head is the top of your body andhot air rises.. when you recumbunt the whole of your body is radiating het upwards

[jbgraham]

The human body is going to put a priority on keeping the brain and the vital organs warm, and will deprive the extremities of bloodflow if neccesary to maintain it, no matter how the body is oriented. The head is at the opening of the sleeping bag, which must remain at least partially open to prevent condensation from forming in the bag. I actually prefer a balaclava, as it is less prone to coming off, and in extreme cold, you can pull it over the mouth to preheat the air before inhaling it. This is particularily useful for those who suffer from cold induced asthma. A balaclava will never frost up as long as you leave it on, but I have had a layer of hoar frost build around the opening of the bag. Even when it is above freezing, a balaclava will help minimize heat loss from the head. If you get hot, just pull it off and you will quickly feel yourself cool down.

[Survivaldon]

Whenever I am out on a winter survival trip or in a climate where the temps change drastically from day to night, I sleep on a firebed next to a reflector fire.

Yes it is true that if your feet are cold you should put on a hat. That's why if you look at my picture here I am wearing a headdana. I always wear one and carry a spare with me. I can wrap the second one around my face and neck in cases where it gets really cold!

[Digby]

A hat isnt wholy logical, its only affective when you're standing as your head is the top of your body and hot air rises.. when you are recumbunt the whole of your body is radiating heat upwards

That's true to a certain extent, but the brain (at least in most people) does use an unusally large amount of energy and hence creates more heat that other partso f the body. Even in a lying down position, you head will be losing heat a lot faster than any other part of your body.

[Emanresu]

I slept like a log last night - when I woke up I was covered in woodlice.

(sorry - couldn't resist it!)

[Survivaldon]

Head is the main escape route for heat loss, whether you are standing up or laying down, makes no difference. When laying down or sleeping the the body is generally covered by a sheet, blanket, or sleeping bag. With the head exposed you will actually lose body heat faster if your head is not covered, especially in winter or when the temp dips below 60 degrees.

That's why I always wear a head wrap. It helps to regulate my body heat and protects my head from the sun and so forth.

On the other side of the coin, you should also cover your head in the summer, especially during extreme physical exurtion. The oils that your body produces, in conjunction with the sweat and the intense heat of the sun produces a baking effect on the skin, hence the tanning process. Your head is even more susceptable to this "baking" process and needs to be protected from this happening.

Covering the head helps to regulate the bodies heating and cooling process. :)

[carbon]

Always pitch on flat land that drains away.I learned in the army cadets 14yrs ago if you sleep in a concrete shell of a building,basically in the open air, (with at least shelter overhead) you will be comfortable wearing clean DRY boots and minimal clothes (thin jacket) inside a quality sleeping bag with a fur cap with ear flaps on you're head.When you wake up strip down & jog on the spot a bit,then get clothed....you feel really good.

[Ollie]

With the current weather situation in the UK (Burning you to a crisp one second, and then thundering cold and wet the next) would it be worth carrying a sleeping bag liner alongside a summer sleeping bag? Would that be enough to offset a cold night?

[MariaD]

I wish there would be some thunder where I am - it's still really warm & humid up here!

A sleeping bag liner can add a few degrees of warmth to your existing sleeping bag, but would you really need it in the British summer? An extra layer of clothes to sleep in would probably be just as good, anyway.

[Ollie]

It's still humid here - during the thunder the air gets freshened and ionised but as soon as it rolls on it soon heats back up again and gets horrible and icky. :(