Do You Usually Bring Sleeping Clothes?

I’ve always worn sleep clothes, more to keep my sleeping bag clean than for warmth. It’s to avoid the need for washing my bag, because I’ve heard that washing degrades the loft of the down.

So I started off with a T-shirt, boxers and socks. As I’ve migrated to ultralight, the T-shirt is now a TLRun from Amazon (2.56oz), the lightest I’ve found. Boxers are Jockey Classic Tapered Boxers (2.76oz), socks are Farpointe 90 g/m2 Alpha DirectCamp socks  (0.76oz).

On through hikes I wear the shorts and shirt I’ve worn for the last week 24/7. In winter the base layer I’ve been wearing is fine. So no special sleep wear.

This is what I did on my AT thru…

George WBPL MEMBER
On through hikes I wear the shorts and shirt I’ve worn for the last week 24/7. In winter the base layer I’ve been wearing is fine. So no special sleep wear.

 

Same as George & John K:

On my through hikes, my only extra, clean clothes were 1 pair of socks and 1 pair underwear. The socks to try to have 1 pair dry for foot health. The underwear because —.

There’s no way to control cleanliness and stink with so many days between showers and laundry.

Thus, strictly minimize “extra” clothing weight to allow more headroom for long water and food carries.

I use a silk liner (4.5 oz) to protect my quilt and it boosts the temp rating a few degrees. I was also bringing a 1/4 zip merino as a base layer and didn’t hike in it, but have changed that out with an Octa Fleece hoodie that is 2 oz lighter and I will use that as a sleep layer if I need additional warmth.

People often say that bringing extra clothes is better than a sleeping bag liner, but I have to say after using a Sea to Summit silk liner combined with my 40 degree Enlightened Equipment bag in sub 40 temps, the liner was sooo much more cozy than piling on clothing layers. It just created this cocoon of warm air around all of me that was wonderful. I don’t normally bring it on trips, but since i was going to experience a range of temperatures – from around freezing or just above, all the way to over 100F – that this was a good solution. I wasn’t sure at all how it would turn out, but the liner was perfect. Then I was able to use the liner only for the hotter temps, when it cooled to 70 a night I could just use it as a light layer over my feet.

“I have to say after using a Sea to Summit silk liner combined with my 40 degree Enlightened Equipment bag in sub 40 temps, the liner was sooo much more cozy than piling on clothing layers.”

This is one reason why I started using a liner also. I use a Coccoon silk mummy liner, mine came in at 4.5 oz on my scale, and it feels more like I’m sleeping in sheets than in a nylon quilt. I find I sleep better and more comfortably with it than with clothing layers.

Another reason is that I wanted to minimize the amount of washings on my down quilt. I can wash the silk liner as much as a I want to without wearing it down.

Coccoon says it adds as much as 9 degrees of warmth, and while I don’t know if that’s true, if it adds even a couple of degrees, I’ll take it.

I was interested to hear a recent BPL podcast, where Ryan was talking about the clothes he wears the whole trip, including as sleeping clothes.  For a weekend shoulder season trip this is starting to make sense, and the liner keeps the bag clean like my dedicated sleeping clothes would in the summer.  I’m thinking base layers and a fleece or midweight merino top. Very light base and/or soft shell bottoms.  Anyone else have a hiking/resting/sleeping set of clothes they wear from trailhead to trailhead?

Now it’s basically a alpha direct top (“hoody”), pants, and sleep socks, (at 90gsm, 60 gsm, and “2-ply 60gsm” respectively) with the top doing double duty, .. though I’ll have a merino balaclava too.

Could press the alpha direct pants and socks into hiking use for a true emergency too.

If it’s warm and leisurely, I’ll switch to the silk sleeping bag liner.

Shoulder season I sleep in brynje top or brynje plus octa up top and they do double duty in camp.  Down low I wear lifa and it does double duty in camp under my hiking pants

In summer, its just undies and I bring a 2.5oz poly shirt to sleep in which serves double duty as a base layer in camp after dark if I need a bit more warmth

Nice thing about using a sleep top as a camp base layer is that its nice and toasty when its time to hit the nest and it doesn’t get dirty/stinky.  I will start hiking on a cold morning in the Brynje though

Everything is dual or triple use (sleep/camp/hike)

I tried one of those reactor liners but found it didn’t add much warmth and I didn’t like how it locked in my hands and arms

ALWAYS, in every season,

I don’t bring dedicated sleep clothes.

I’m not one for sticking to routines. Part of the healing power I get from hiking is not having to ‘control’ my ADHD, and just being in the moment, doing what feels right. Sometimes that’s crawling under my comforter exhausted, in all my hiking clothes, waking up three hours later, eating dinner, undressing and going back to bed.

I take care not to get the sleeping gear wet, but care very little about getting it dirty.

The closest thing I have to a sleep routine is starting in boxers, fishnet (Svala) top and bottom, socks, a buff for the neck and possibly a buff as a beanie.

During the night, most of that comes off, and then as the morning chill hits, it’ll come back on. The puffy is always close.

Switching from a sleeping bag to a comforter this year, has made it much easier to regulate temperature by just sticking bits of me out. So there’s less changing of layers now, but I still rarely sleep in the same clothes all night (at home I just sleep in boxers, but have an extra blanket for the same purpose).

The socks are dedicated camp/sleep socks, so my feet are dry.

The fishnet top gets use during the day (polypro so easy to dry), but outside winter I rarely use the bottoms. I’ve considered if a pair of alpha leggings might be more versatile, but I doubt it. Functionally they seem almost identical.

@EricBlumensaadt Me too. I wash up at every availability as well. Rivers, lakes, small creeks. Can’t stand sleeping dirty, but it does happen a special at dry camps.

A clean set to sleep in is just a t-shirt and a set of boxers and socks. Thermals do double duty day and night. A clean comfy sleep is just as valuable to my  psychology as a hot dinner.

I bring a sleeping socks and a T shirt for summer but for shoulder seasons I bring a light polyester set of long johns and more recently, HOLLOW brand alpaca crew socks. If I need more in late fall I bring down pants along with my light down jacket. That combo adds another 10 F. to my overstuffed 20 F. WM Megalite’s range.

For winter I just leave my base layer on. It keeps my skin off the bag liner enough even though it is fishnet.  I may add a grid polyester zip T neck top but the mummy is comfort rated to -20 F. so I’ve only done that once.

I always bring sleep clothes. 99% of the time i use the capilene cool shirts in short or long sleave. They work for town clothes when thru hiking so you look less like a homeless person also. Depending on conditions I use light joggers mostly, alpha pants shoulder season, or down pants in full winter. There is something about bare skin especially legs in a sleeping bag that is a no go for me. This spring on the AZT I had to hike from Flagstaff to the southern terminus approximately 200 miles with no shower. Sleeping clothes were a necessity….Hahaha!