Sleeping Pads, Bony Hips, and Bubbles

i always thot that if i had to go to ground, which is the case occasionally in GC and such..
i would get the ti goat Ptarmigan bivy.

anyway, the comment about OFF! was just to throw a bone and totally confuse everyone. except Ken Helwig.
OFF! is the new band founded by Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame. Nothing better than an aware, ticked off 40-something punk rocker. its all we folks with ol' ladies and toddlers have left sometimes.. haha

I am also having a problem getting a good nights sleep, I am a side-sleeper and currently using a 1.5 inch short REI Lite-Core pad. I have tried it fully inflated and various levels of deflated. I find I can sleep fine on my back but will wake up in the middle of the night turned onto my side with sore hips, I have to flip over the other hip for a while to ease the pain, then it starts to hurt. Seems like I am awake every other hour flip flopping.

I am headed up to REI in a bit to pick up a 2.5 inch Big Agnes Aircore. Going to give it a shot to see if the extra inch of padding helps this issue. If it does I will probably end up returning the pad and ordering something similar and insulated from Kookaburra

OFF! are amazing. This is what Keith Morris is supposed to sound like. Early Black Flag with Keith's gnarly vocals….nice shout out Mike!! Love their ep or album or whatever the heck it is

"after a while I start to notice the same problem with it bulging into my lower back"

I believe I understand what you are experiencing here. I often experience this on my NeoAir. For me, I tend to sleep adequately on the NeoAir if I inflate it pretty hard, but it takes a while to fall asleep when it's inflated pretty firmly since it's not that comfortable. If I inflate it fairly soft so I sink nicely into the mattress, it feels comfortable initially and I fall asleep better, but then I sometimes wake up in the night with a sore lower back from it bulging into my lower back.

This problem seems to be inherent with all sealed chamber air mattresses, but it's easier to create with the NeoAir because it's thicker so there is a tendancy to inflate it a bit softer and sag in more. If you inflate the NeoAir firmly so you don't sink in very far, then there isn't really much point in having a 2.5" thick mattress.

Aside from inflating it more firmly, I'm not sure what to do. Lately I've been setting it medium soft, so I can fall asleep okay and then if I wake up in discomfort I add a breath or two and change positions…and hopefully stop the problem before it leads to more soreness.

For me, I usually sleep great on open cell foam (ie. those thick beige colored mattresses that are usually about 3" thick) but I don't believe this stuff is practical to carry for backpacking because it's quite bulky, easy to get wet and presumably heavy. If someone made a 2" thick open cell foam pad that was firm enough that I don't bottom it out hard, and the weight was reasonable then it might be a good solution.