Dont wear your day clothes to bed-myth?

[Rick Cheehy]

I do the silk liner, clean socks, all the rest of my clothes bit. If I'm not wearing all my clothes to bed I feel like I over packed (unless they're wet). I do bring an extra silk weight wool shirt. I take off the one I hiked in put on the "sleeping shirt" then I put the hiking shirt on over that. Then i put on my insulation ( montbell thermawrap)rain shell. I wash up first but ….

[Dondo .]

Joseph, I don't know if it's a myth or not but I've been wearing my hiking clothing to bed for many years and I'm still here. I use to carry a silk top and bottom layer but one night I was just too tired to change. Nothing bad happened that night or the next. So I just stopped carrying them. It dropped a bit of weight and just as important for me, simplified things. It's two less items to deal with.

[EndoftheTrail]

I almost always change into my silk long johns and dedicated liner socks. On a few occasions, when it's cold and I feel clean and completely "unsweaty" — I would just change my pants, put on my liner socks, but leave on my hiking base layer.

The one great thing about sleeping in one's hiking clothes is that in the cold morning — you can just add a layer and be ready to start the day — instead of taking off all your night clothes and then quickly putting on your hiking clothes. I like that.

But somehow, I just "can't" slip into my bag wearing sweaty, dirty clothes…

[Pamela Wyant]

I never sleep in my hiking pants mainly because they are usually way too muddy.

I sometimes sleep in my hiking shirt, depending on weather, and how long I've had to dry it out after hiking and before sleeping.

I normally have some sort of base layer and sleep in that. In the hot summer months I might take shorts and a light weight T or tank instead.

[Mike Clelland]

This is so interesting that this is even a topic of discussion.

I never – EVER – change my clothes when camping. I did 30 days once in alaska without ever taking off a pair of pile pants.

My clothes are part of my insulation in my sleeping system.

I have worn a set of next to skin synthetic (patagonia capaline, usually) for 30 days, full time, never ever taking them off. I've done a lot of month long trips in the last 16 years. Yes, I smell terrible, but that's okay. I sleep fine. I do not use a sleeping bag liner of any kind.

I do change into dry socks before bedtime.

If it's raining and I have wet clothes, I take them off before climbing into the sleeping bag.

If I get too hot at night, I just unzip my sleeping bag – or pull my arms out of my quilt.

I do NOT bring an extra pair of underwear on a 30-day expedition.

During a winter trip this january, I would time myself getting out of my sleeping bag to standing up in the snow kitchen. This means I would start counting as I touched my zipper, and stop counting standing upright in the snow kitchen next to the igloo.

I did it in EIGHT seconds.

There is efficiency built into sleeping with all your clothes on.

– also –

I do a lot of my camping where it's cold (and low humidity) at night. Like the rockies, and the desert SW.

I've spent a LOT of time in the north cascades, humid and chilly.

Alaska is funny with so much day-light, it can be humid and wet there, and the nights can be COLD.

[Rick Cheehy]

So I guess we all agree on the socks. The best thing about the "clothes as part of the sleep system" mentality is the below freezing midnight pee. SOOO much better with warm clothes on already.

[EndoftheTrail]

Or use a pee bottle. :)

[Ashley Brown]

Pee bottle? That's a specialised piece of gear. This is BPL. Think multi-use. ;-)

[Brad Groves]

One of these years I should probably write an ode to my old Western bag… 15 years of sleeping in whatever baselayer I've had on throughout the day, and it still lofts like when it was new. I do carry sleep socks.

I find it amazing that people so vehemently belittle the mere thought of carrying even one pair of underwear. Give me a break! If I don't change mine every 5 days or so I get crotch rot. So I carry a spare pair and keep healthy. On 2 wk + trips I might even carry shorts that have a liner as a "third" pair. It prevents the maddening itch, rash and discomfort. I don't consider it a luxury, but a necessity. More than about 4 days in a pair of socks and my feet start getting funky. So I carry a spare couple pair for hiking, and a thick woolen pair for sleeping and padding around camp. I'll probably change my sleep socks to the 2.5oz down ones I made.

Bottom line, yeah, just wear your clothes to bed. If nothing else, I love rolling out of bed in my warm clothes. It's enough of a shock to crawl out of my warm downy cocoon, I don't want to take off all my layers that early in the am!

[Mike Clelland]

The PEE bottle is a multi-use item.

Just rinse it out in the morning and use it as a water-bottle. Easy.

[Joe Clement]

Oh……….ick….

[Rick Cheehy]

Tangy!

[EndoftheTrail]

"Tangy"

Ouch! Rick — with your first and last names, I wouldn't start a name-mocking round if I were you. We could do quite a bit just with rhyming. :)

[Brad Groves]

Other option is to re-use a ziploc from your food bag. Easy to empty, even when frozen. Hang on to it, though, because if you get a nasty wound you can re-use the ziploc again for wound irrigation! (Um, you might want to throw a few drops of Aquamira in that irrigation solution…)

[cary bertoncini]

if the multi-use bottle weren't cleaned thoroughly enough, especially Benjamin would have particularly tang-y water to drink…

[Ali e]

Would that be Brad for him or would he just have to cary more water treatment.

[EndoftheTrail]

Ali way you look at it — a pee bottle is worth its weight in gold — esp. when it's pouring or snowing out there.

[Richard Matthews]

Ben,

Was the astronaut drink named after you?

Maybe Tang = sugar?

[Rick Cheehy]

I went to public school Ben, I know all about rhymes, trusut me! Why do you think I spend all my spare time in the backcountry wearing all my sweaty clothes to sleep and peeing in a bottle. Oh yes, Mike C., and wiping my butt with rocks.
But yea, sleep in your clothes and change your socks.

[Mary D]

Being female, I don't have the option of the "pee bottle." And being elderly, I have to make several middle-of-the-night trips. So pardon me if I'm not altogether amused at "pee bottle" jokes–envy, I know!

A perhaps apocryphal story that made the rounds of the Colorado backcountry in the 1950's: A young couple was camping in the mountains on their honeymoon. Unfortunately, it rained and rained and rained–every day and every night. The young wife got sick and tired of going out in the rain every night, so she decided to take a coffee can to bed with her. In the middle of the night, her husband heard first, "tinkle tinkle tinkle" and then "!!@@##%%&&##!!!" The coffee can was upside down!

[EndoftheTrail]

Rick, I trust you. :)

Good to know a fellow hiker with the good sense of using a pee bottle.

[EndoftheTrail]

"Maybe Tang = sugar?"

Ah, I see you are a 'closet' Chinese expert! :)

Now tell me, why is Nalgene the perfect brand name for a pee bottle?

[cary bertoncini]

i immediately made that connection & wondered if there was a reason they chose that name, since the drink is mostly sugar

[Rick Cheehy]

Hey, Mary two words, Wide mouth. Just keep it right side up!

[EndoftheTrail]

Cheeky!

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