Camping Sleeping Bags

When preparing to go camping, sleeping bags are always near the top of the list of essential items to pack, and the type of sleeping bag you will require will depend on the type of camping trip you have in mind. If you are undertaking a fairly long treck then you will need to take into consideration the bulk and weight of your pack, of which your sleeping bag is a significant portion. For longer trips, camping sleeping bags have been manufactured with materials such as down and specialised synthetic fillings to reduce the weight and bulkiness of the sleeping bag while ensuring adequate warmth for the conditions. For extremely cold conditions specialist lightweight alpine bags should be used. They are designed to provide maximum warmth from minimum weight and bulk. 

The three main kinds of camping sleeping bags are the rectangular sleeping bags, which are obviously rectangular in shape and provide plenty of room inside, the somewhat oval-shaped barrel sleeping bags, and the mummy sleeping bags, which taper towards the feet and have a hood.

Two basic types of fill are used in the manufacture of sleeping bags:

Down                                                                                                                                             Down sleeping bags have very good insulation properties and enable the bag to be warm and lightweight. On the down side (pun intended), they tend to be more expensive, they lose insulation when wet and they need to be washed with care to avoid damage, but if looked after, they will last longer than their synthetic counterparts. Higher grade down provides better insulation qualities and is lighter and less bulky, but is more expensive than lower grade down.

Synthetic                                                                                                                                     Synthetic sleeping bag insulation is made from poly-fibres. These are heavier than down but are more resistant to water than down, and are able to retain heat even when wet. Some of the synthetic fillings which are used are Hollowfibre, Microloft and Polarguard.

Baffles and Tubes                                                                                                                          In order to avoid aggregation of insulation materials inside camping sleeping bags, many are made with inbuilt compartments which cross the sleeping bag from side to side and which are joined by their walls which are called baffles. These baffles are mainly required by the down filled sleeping bags because down is more free-flowing than its synthetic counterpart.