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Sleeping Warm
You're finally ready for bed, after hiking hard all day and cooking and cleaning up from dinner. The last thing you want is to restlessly toss and turn because you're too cold to sleep.
How to achieve a warm night's rest.
- Fancy features - Use your sleeping bag's fancy features, like the drawstring that pulls the bag snug around your face and neck.
- Sleep solo - If you and your partner have zip-together bags, consider abandoning romance in favor of warmth. Sleeping solo in your own bag is warmer because you don't lose all that heat around your neck and shoulders.
- Sleeping pad - Make sure there is adequate insulation under your mattress. For most people, this means a full-length air mattress. In really cold temperatures, an extra closed-cell foam pad adds even more warmth.
- Don a hat - Wear a hat to bed instead of burrowing in your sleeping bag. If you sleep with your face inside your bag, condensation can collect inside the bag's insulation.
- Open a window - If your tent has ventilation features like storm windows, open them to allow air circulation that does gather.
- Clench your toes - Try clenching and unclenching different muscles if you're cold. You won't work up a sweat but you'll feel warmer.
- Eat, drink - Eat or drink something warm just before you go to bed, and if there's hot liquid left over, put it in a canteen and take it inside your sleeping bag with you.
- Vapor barrier liners - Vapor barrier liners hold heat next to your body. They're clammy but warm.
- No snow to bed - Be sure to brush snow off your clothing before climbing into your bag. That innocent-looking dry white powder can soak your clothes and sleeping bag.
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