Taking Insulation Clothing to Sleep in a Hammock

[Kevin Babione]

As the colder weather hits us, I wanted to ask other hammockers (although this probably applies to the ground-dwellers as well) about how they take their insulated clothing layers to sleep with them.  I used to wear my Montbell Ex-Light jacket to sleep when it was cold but then realized that the insulation on the back was being compressed as I laid on it and wasn’t doing anything for me.  What I now do is to take off my jacket and zip it up.  I then take the jacket and lay it over my torso, tucking the arms under my armpits to keep it in place.  My top quilt then gets pulled up over the jacket.

This way I get double the insulation from the jacket (front and back) directly over my torso.  I’ve found that if my core is warm then my extremities are as well.  Has anyone else tried this?

[dirtbag]

I usually wear my Patagonia thermal weight hoody base layer under my Patagonia R1 hoody.. And that’s usually fine.. I can also throw on my lightweight hybrid hoody if needed. That, along with my under quilt and over quilt, never had a problem. My down jacket I never wear to sleep because I like to put that on when I wake up and get out of my hammock in the cold morning. I also lay it along side of me somewhere in the hammock and use it as extra insulation..keep my phone and inreach warm, and water bottle from freezing.

[Tim H]

As I tend to get cold feet when the temps drop below freezing, I take my puffy, zip it up and tuck the sleeves inside-out, and wrap that around the outside of my foot box. I tried wearing my puffy when I first began hammocking in the winter, but grew tired of the whole overheating/cooling process. A mid weight base layer and light fleece is all need as long as I have a properly rated top quilt and underquilt.

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