Side sleping on a foam pad

I have tried using a round donut of 1/2″ CCF maybe 10 or 12″ in diameter with a 3″ hole cut out of it for my hip and did not find it to help much.

What are people’s experiences and what did you use?

My experience:  bruised hips.  My solution:  air mattress.

I slept on a foam pad for over 40 years and am a side sleeper. The only suitable solution for a foam pad was to sleep on one few nights at home prior to a trip to condition myself. There were periods where I might be doing many trips over a shorter period of time and my body had gotten used to it.

When I entered my mid ‘60s, the solution was an air mattress. Even that isn’t always perfect, being skinny. If there is much of a drop in ambient temperature during the night, I wake up and have to blow a little air into the pad. This happens more often than not.

If Glen Van Peski, he has used tylenol pm for tolerating his foam pad ; ). Digging out a hip hole works really well in sand and gravel campsites. The depression for hip needs to be a few inches deep to work, imo. I am not going to dig holes in dense dirt, either.

I sometimes double up on foam for hip area. It sorta works.

I have tried an inflatable pad for just the hip area (montbell sells a 12x20x1″ pad extension). It never held air for long, but could be a good solution. It adds 3-5 oz more weight though.

Todd T’s reply that air mattresses work better for side sleepers is my experience too.  I have both a 3 season REI FLASH insulated air mattress and a similar All Season insulated air mattress, both with Sea to Summit valves. (Basically a Sea to Summit clone design).  Last night I slept on the All Season air mattress in my -20 F. does bag and was very comfortable in 10 F. weather in a 2 person tent. Amazing to me how the synthetic insulation and reflective coatings make an air mattress work in cold weather but it definitely does.

Nick G., the solution to air mattress “cold deflation” is to use a PUMP SACK to fill it with colder (and drier) atmospheric air. That way your body heat will actually inflate it more.

I can’t sleep on my back, so CCF is just not an option.

Nick G., the solution to air mattress “cold deflation” is to use a PUMP SACK to fill it with colder (and drier) atmospheric air. That way your body heat will actually inflate it more.

I’ve never used a pump sack because, well it is extra weight. I do have one though, it was included with a new NeoAir that Therm-a-Rest sent me a couple years ago as a warranty replacement.

Your comments make sense. I’ll have to try it out. Thanks!

I agree the sack is better but even inflating with a sack when it’s 50 degrees will lose some air when it drops to 30…

Regarding foam… setting aside the comfort factor, I don’t understand how 1/8″ foam provides enough insulation from the ground. June-September, sure. For the other eight months of the year it’s too cold, at least here in Colorado.

Maybe I’m just not sufficiently acclimated down to those temps and I’m too soft after sleeping in a regular bed for forty plus years. Surely our ancestors have slept on the bare ground for thousands or millions of years. Would they take a Neoair now though? Aside from the noise and slight deflation, probably? :)

The Exped Flexmat plus (1.5″ thick) works pretty well but you have break in the points of the mat a bit to get really comfortable.  The hip hole is great in soft soils.  I combine the Flexmat with a XS Thermarest prolite for max comfort and max durability, I have had too many air mattress failures.

Forgot to comment on lumbar thing. Some will use rolled up clothes for lumbar area support when back sleeping, or maybe even for that area above hip bone when side sleeping in addition to extra padding for hip.

But, just found the video of what Glen is doing, his GVP Divot.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vzox3AX4KDE

I often hike when and/or where the ground is very hard, so the divot idea is not of much use.

I would recommend experimenting with a kapok pillow or a dryfast foam pillow for the hip area–you want these to be at least a couple inches thick before compression.  Kapok is a fiber made by trees (in a seed pod) that is around a similar weight and insulation as 550 duck down, but resists compression more than duck down because the fibers are hollow and sealed at one end. It is also durable with the compression cycles.  It is commonly used in the natural cushioning market for cushions (from sit pillows, to head pillows, to cushions on chairs, etc).  Prior to the invention of foam, it was used in life vests (the fibers are coated in a thick, natural wax, so it is very hydrophobic, which is how/why it was used in life vests), Arctic boots, and the like.  I’ve been using a kapok stuffed pillow for a head pillow for many years now, and it is by far my favorite pillow.  It has that sweet spot between compressing and resisting compression that is not found in most other materials like duck down w/ plenty of feathers, CCF, etc.  In that sense, it is more similar to open celled foam.  But inexpensive, completely natural, and ultimately biodegradable material.

Dryfast foam is a type of reticulated open celled PU based foam that was developed specifically for the outdoor foam cushion market and designed to well, dry fast like the name says. Unlike other open celled foams, it is designed to breath well and allow fast water drainage while being very hydrophobic.  Like all foams, it is sold in varying densities.  Generally the higher the density, the more it resists compression, but also tends to last longer.  I would try both a medium and high and see what works best for you.  The downside is that it will not last as long as kapok or CCF. But the higher quality and higher density stuff will last a decent time.  A lot of people who use it, sleep or sit on it constantly (boats, yachts, etc) and so wear it down faster.

I would encase the kapok fiber or dryfast foam in a good, light weight 6.6 nylon fabric like one of the Mountain lines, or something similar.  In either case, obviously the hip pillow will go over a good, thicker CCF foam pad of some kind.

This will be the lightest, most packable, and cheaper option.  But the easiest and all around more comfortable will be Alex H’s combo suggestion of Exped Flexmat Plus + XS Thermarest Prolite (made with a open celled foam).

The biggest downside to using either of these materials is that you have to be careful about getting these wet, because they will absorb moisture and take some definite time to fully dry unlike CCF foam, a Prolite pad, etc.  The fabric you stuff it is, will definitely help with that, so choose that carefully.

I’ve tried the extra-padding-under-the-hips thing and it basically made things worse.  Yes, it puts a little more cushion between the hip bones and the ground, but it also raises the hip bones, which is the opposite of what you want because it puts more pressure on the hips.  (See the many positive experiences with digging a hip hole.)

I also tried becoming a back sleeper by putting a (BIG) pillow of sorts under my knees, but it just wouldn’t work.  My problem is an old back injury, so YMMV.

I’ll save my rant against “preemptive” painkillers for another time.

Anyway, air mattresses saved backpacking for me.

That makes sense Todd.  For folks that hike in different conditions than myself, I don’t see why you couldn’t combine the hip divot/hole idea with the extra cushioning to get the best of both worlds?

(My solution for self is completely different–making an UL cot to be used with CCF.  But I still will use air matts for regular and/or shorter trips. They are nice when they don’t leak or lose too much air)

I have sleep apnea when sleeping on my back, so I sleep on my side

air mattress works.  Foam pad not comfortable enough

I’ve tried the extra-padding-under-the-hips thing and it basically made things worse.  Yes, it puts a little more cushion between the hip bones and the ground, but it also raises the hip bones, which is the opposite of what you want because it puts more pressure on the hips.  (See the many positive experiences with digging a hip hole.)

Maybe it makes more sense to add a strip above and below the hip then? That’s what I was trying to do by cutting a circle out of a foam disc but maybe it wasn’t enough padding or a large enough hole.

I’m not inclined to experiment further.

I purchased an interesting inflatable pad from Will R. last year that is a torso-size framework of tubes with lots of cutouts and space in between the tubes. That seems like a pretty good solution with a CCF pad. I haven’t experimented much with it yet.

Maybe it makes more sense to add a strip above and below the hip then? That’s what I was trying to do by cutting a circle out of a foam disc but maybe it wasn’t enough padding or a large enough hole.

I actually thought of doing that once, but never got around to trying it.  I’m happy with air mats for the time being.