Poll: What's your preferred sleeping position, and bag or quilt?

[Craig B]

Hi, All.  I’m curious about how many people are back sleepers vs. side sleepers, and who uses sleeping bags or a quilt.  I’m a side sleeper because when I sleep on my back, my nasal passages dry out and it’s very uncomfortable.  I’ve never tried a quilt partly because I’m very skeptical about the seal around the edges.  I tend to turn over maybe once per hour, and it’s hard enough as it is to do so in a bag and keep things centered on the pad, let alone trying to hold down open edges of a very small blanket.  It seems like it would be pretty difficult to maintain the seal with a quilt if you move around at all while sleeping.  I hear commercials for mattress places that say something like “the average person changes position 50+ times a night”.  Which makes me very curious about the actual percentages of people who use bags and quilts, their primary sleeping positions, and if they move around or not.

[Brad Rogers]

I generally sleep on my sides, but occasionally my stomach in the backcountry. I use quilts down to around 20*F and a bag below. I have a wider quilt, and it just becomes second nature to adjust the quilt when you turn.

I can compare it to driving a manual transmission in a vehicle. Once you get used to it, you do it without noticing it the majority of the time.

[Rachel P]

I sleep on my side most of the time, and occasionally on my back. I prefer quilts. There was a bit of a learning curve when I first started and I find the straps really help with limiting drafts. In the winter I layer a synthetic quilt over my down quilt, and that one is wider as well. I’ve slept into the low teens with this system. I think I could go into the single digits but it didn’t get that cold in our tent last winter.

[John Vance]

Quilt and on my side mostly, but spend time on my back, and occasionally my stomach.

[Alex H]

side sleeper but roll side to side, I prefer bags but I am also usually out in colder weather (nights below freezing) and tarp, no tent.

[Allen C]

I’m a side sleeper, sleep cold, and turn over a lot. I tried quilts (Katabatic 32 and 15 degree) but found that I was often cold, it was hard to keep drafts out, and they are just more hassle than I want to deal with when I’m exhausted after a long day and just want to get a few hours of quality sleep. I also don’t backpack more than a handful of nights per year, and like to keep things simple – so YMMV. But I decided to go back to sleeping bags with zippers, as they keep the drafts out, don’t require adjusting or re-attaching straps/cords or let cold air in every time I roll over, and seem to be warmer and less hassle for the way I sleep. They are heavier but for me seem to be more functional. I did buy a FF Vireo with overfill in the top half for seriously UL trips, but haven’t used it yet.

[Matthew / BPL]

I’m a rotisserie style side sleeper and would never go back to a bag because I get all wrapped up (plus the weight). I like a wider quilt. I’ve never been cold down to just below freezing in my 20° HG Burrow and TAR XLite Women’s pad.

[Adam White]

Side and back sleeper, sleep cold, and turn a lot (I don’t toss an awful lot, because I’m an UL backpacker, and I rarely bring extra things that I might toss during the night).

I used a EE quilt with straps, and found it was much better than a mummy bag in terms of fiddliness when I’d turn. However, it was a 30 degree quilt, which didn’t quite cut it for me in the three-season Sierra.

Now I use a ZPacks 20 degree hoodless bag. It’s great. No issues like with mummy bags where you find yourself misaligned with the hood. I never had issues with the EE straps, and I liked the way they kept the quilt above me when I would turn. I think I’d be just as happy with a suitably-rated EE quilt (or really, any quilt manufacturer that has the straps figured out).

[d k]

Side sleeper, and once I got a nice warm EE quilt I never looked back.  Tossing and turning is much easier in a quilt.

[Lester Moore]

Mostly a side sleeper, but sometimes on my back, with a fair amount of changing sides each night. 20F EE Enigma Quilt on a TAR X-lite pad.

Once you get the straps dialed in, the quilt stays put quite well and avoids drafts. When it’s cold (20’s and 30’s) I use both EE straps, with both fully wrapped around the sleeping pad – this does a good job of avoiding drafts. A wide sized quilt also helps with drafts (more quilt tucked under the sides of your body). Also, wearing a wind shirt as your outer layer while sleeping allows you to toss and turn with minimal friction between your body, quilt and pad, further avoiding drafts due to quilt roll around the long axis of the pad.

[Brad P]

I’ve tried sleeping on my back. I just can’t get to sleep or stay comfortable for very long so I side sleep.

I’ve always used bags but now have 2 quilts and am trying that out. One can work either way. I think when it’s cold, I’ll use it as a bag.

[jimmyjam]

Side sleeper on inflatable with EE Rev quilt + straps.

[AK Granola]

Constant all night rolling side to back to side again; thank goodness the husband sleeps through anything. Mostly I don’t fully wake up, but I do move a lot. I’ve been curious about quilts but not willing to invest a huge sum into that plus new pad, etc. and then still be cold at night with some little breeze blowing in from a gap. I hate being cold! I have a FF Egret mummy and I love it. It fits snugly, and just rolls right with me, even pulling my legs up or stretching them out again. At home in bed I like the blanket wrapped tightly too. Maybe I was swaddled as a kid, idk. My old bag is an REI Sub Kilo and it was too roomy so I’d get caught up and tangled in it, also it was better for warm weather, which I almost never camp in.

[Aaron W]

I’m a side sleeper and use a diy down quilt.  I made it a little on the wide to make up for my tossing around.

[Ryan Tucker]

Side sleeper, wide quilt…switching out of a bag was the best decision I ever made.

[Todd T]

Side only, as a back issue (cracked a vertebra years ago) rules out back or stomach.  I use an air mattress–the closed cell foam things literally leave me with bruised hips–and a goose down bag.  I carry the bag with me as I do the side-to-side rotisserie.  Once in a while I’ll end up on my back by accident, which can leave me almost incapacitated the next day if I stay there too long.

[Bruce Tolley]

Start on my right side, then flip to my right side, and then start the cycle over again perhaps every 60 to 90 minutes.  About 1/2 through the night I change to sleeping on my back.

All this turning is under an extra wide quilt.

[Erica R]

I toss and turn and roll from side to side. I don’t like mummy bags (though they are admittedly more efficient) because I have to move the whole bag every time I move. I have a ZPacks xwide 30F bag (the 20F was too warm for me at 49F in quilt mode). I don’t get why you wouldn’t want to have a zipper. You can use this bag in quilt mode if you want to, but the first thing I do if it starts to get chilly is zip up the bag. The addition of the zipper weighs practically nothing, the total weight at 17 oz is comparable to a quilt.

[Tipi Walter]

Like others I toss and turn every night in my tent thruout a trip—but I do get quality sleep on occasion—especially on bad weather rainy zero days in the tent when I can sleep in.  And in cold weather I sleep like a baby.

I often hit the sack at 9pm and get up at 1am to peer about and write in my trail journal, or read thru my “book rolls”—copied crap I bring from home—and of course burned during the course of a trip.

And I use both a sleeping bag and a quilt—meaning that most of the time I sleep under my unzipped down bag, effectively becoming a quilt.  In severe cold the “quilt” has the beneficial option of becoming a zipped up mummy bag, i.e. “mummification”—so yes I like both the quilt and the bag.

[Katherine .]

Side / Rotisserie. Quilt.

[Vince G]

I use quilts almost exclusively and, since I am mainly a hammock camper, sleep on my back. I sleep on my back at home too but find, when I sleep on the ground, I toss and turn a lot. I have a hard time getting comfortable on a sleeping pad, too many pressure points.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Side sleeper mostly, and back. I have a quilt.

I’ve learned that if you feel a draft on your back side, move INTO it, not away. Moving into it will cover it back up if it’s a small draft. If it’s a big one, you just have to readjust the quilt.

I’ve also learned that if you want zero drafts and all the comfort of a quilt, use two quilts. I have a 20 degree and a 45 degree and I lay the 45 degree on top as an extra blanket. It weights the same as a down jacket and it has a hole to slip my head through and wear like a poncho, so I leave my jacket home.

At the very least, you can use your down jacket as an extra blanket inside your bag. I like to drape it over my hips since that’s where I get the drafts when I sleep on my side.

[Shane C]

I agree with tipi, I am a stomach sleeper and need to have my knee pulled up and sticking off the pad. I cannot stand the feeling of a mummy bag. I use my sleeping bag as a quilt and if I get cold in the night I can easily just sit up and zip up the bag. My bag has a foot box and it doesnt zip all the way down so when I’m using g it as a quilt my feet are still in the box. If I’m cold enough that I have to zip it up and be mummified then it’s not as much as a comfort issue but more with an I need to get warm issue and I can deal with it. Even if I am cold and  unzipped in the bag in quilt mode I can throw on a puffy and pull the head part over the top of my head, basically upside down from the way the bag should lay. Not sure if I’m explaining that correctly.

[Duane Hall]

Side sleeper, with a wide quilt.

 

[Randy S]

Side sleeper and I sleep cold. I have a 10 Degree EE 10 Revelation Quilt which for me works to the low 40’s. Comfortable, but try as I might I still struggle with drafts when it gets chilly. Colder than 40 and I want my Western Mountaineering bag.

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