I'm already gearing myself up for this year's camping adventures 🥳
I always struggle with warmth at bedtime. I've invested in a lovely 10cm foam sim and will have a foil blanket underneath.
Last year I bought a Pod Beast sleeping bag but was still cold even with layers on top.
I'm thinking of investing in a high tog duvet and a teddy fleece duvet cover 🤔
Has anyone got this set up? And any tips on how to not get cold overnight!
PS I do wear a woolly hat and fill a hot water bottle before I settle down ☺️
I have never used a sleeping bag as I don't like my feet to be trapped. So my preferred bedding is duvet, plus fleece blanket if I need it.
Make sure you go to bed warm, have a hot shower early evening then put on your nightwear with a tracksuit on top, then you are not taking off warm clothes and putting cold on.
When I was a tenter, my final sleeping system was a camp bed + a 7.5cm Self-Inflated Mattress (SIM) on top, secured by means of a fitted flannel sheet and clips, plus a combination duck feather and down duvet double duvet all to myself, 7.5 Tog + 4.5 Tog which I used combined for winter/cold weather camping.
I also wore a beanie hat, thermals and socks to bed during the colder months if needed.
Please bear in mind that I also used a fan heater overnight, set at about 16degC.
I was very toasty.
I needed to make sure my feet were not cold before I went to bed, as I found it difficult to fall asleep if my feet were cold. Wrapping my socked feet with the duvet helped to keep them warm once I was in bed.
I too disliked sleeping bag for feeling being trapped.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
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- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
If you are cold your sleeping bag and whatever you sleep in are inadequate. A decent 3 or even 4 season bag/duvet and wear Merino wool tops and bottoms and socks.
I'd also ditch the hot water bottle. They stay warm for an hour or so, after that the water is cold.
I can recommend the Hot Hands handwarmers, they are far far better. Only small, but they emit heat all night. A couple of those in the bag an hour before bed and you should have better heat supply overnight.
My Wife Particularly Feels the Cold, myself not so much. Our Set up us in a Queensize airbed. We Have a Carpet underneath that. On top of the Airbed, we have a Blanket, Followed by a Duvet (Tog rating, Varies on time of year and Camping Location) On top of that we have another blanket. This is by and large enough comfort for both of us, as the wife takes the top blanket from me if she is feeling the cold.
We do also take a Spare Sleeping bag, which we can through over the top if we are really Cold, but to date we have never needed it for that purpose, Only when the Airbed Punctured, and it was used for Extra Padding, whilst we slept on the ground :-).
I invested on a pair of heated sleepers recently and they were very good in keeping my feet warm on very cold nights when I was camping over the festive period in the van, while I spent long period at the table using my laptop.
The batteries are rechargeable via USB with dual charging cable supplied.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
I suppose I'm lucky in being a 'hot bod' who requires minimal bedding, but have had partners who have required such excesses (IMHO!) of bedding I just couldn't share a bed with them as I was intolerably overheated! Constant source of disagreement with my Ex, even at home blasted women was hell bent on roasting me alive!
Anyway point being, bedding is hugely bulky and some thought needs to be given to packing it for transport as well as just comfort levels on site! Huge bulky duvets and the like can gobble limited car boot space quite alarmingly (BITTER experience )! Most sleeping bags can be forced into a stuff sack and be reasonable compact, other bedding may suffer and not recover if overly tightly packed!
Insulation levels are inevitably tied to volume of trapped air! If items suitable, Vac-Pack bags can be a solution to exclude air and not pointlessly be shipping vast volumes of the stuff, so long as you have a suitable vacuum device at camp site for the return journey.
As a hill walker, keeping warm rule was 'layers' rather than single source insulation. It meant you could add or reduce layers to suit the environment and always find a comfort level. Also keeping head, feet and hands warm as opposed to just 'torso' worked wonders - adapted that to my camping.
Keep the person warm rather than the environment is considered more effective for camping, so consider an electric blanket/throw rather than a space heater. There are a number of camping/leisure electric blankets/throws on the market, some battery powered rather than mains powered, a few compared here: https://comparebuddy.co.uk/product/battery-powered-electric-blanket/?msclkid=0ee3c......... Of course, if battery powered, the battery will require recharging at some point, so don't overlook how!
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 24/1/2026
A dog is ideal: ours stays warm all night. She does hog the middle of the bed a bit though.
My old dog had his own bed next to my camp bed, snug as a bug.
I miss him dearly.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 24/1/2026
A dog is ideal: ours stays warm all night. She does hog the middle of the bed a bit though.
I find mine works quite well too as a perpetual hot water bottle!
A dog's body temp is around 1C more than humans, so 'free' heat to be leached from it!
We use the Quechua bases, air bed, mattress topper, fitted sheet and a quilt with a teddy fleece cover. I will say this though. Before you go wash you cover/quilt and tumble dry it or give it a good airing. Mine had sat in the wardrobe , clean, washed, but as it had not been aired it really held the cold.
We always make sure we have a reflective blanket on the floor beneath the airbed and fleece blanket beneath the duvet, works great for us along with long sleeve/legged PJs even a beanie in really cold weather
Swapped ours because i ended up on the zip of the sleeping bag. Now we uses the quechua bases, air bed, matteress topper, fitted sheet, quilt with teddy fleece cover. I take a faux fur blanket just in case. BUT make sure all your bedding is aired well before you go either tumble or a good warm somewhere.
Another idea, is a dedicated 'camping quilt', which is different from a duvet.
There are numerous variations, from relatively inexpensive to £££: beauty is that they are more packable than a home duvet, but still allow the feet to run free. I also hate feeling trapped, and a mummy-style sleeping bag would be a thing of nightmares.
Having used a home duvet initially, (with a sort of padded sunbathing mat beneath a fitted sheet, on top of a fleecy mattress topper on top of a box-sided Lilo) we switched to firstly a wide 'pod' bag as the duvets seemed to hold moisture and felt damp. The pod bag avoided that but, they didn't unzip at the foot. So, sold those and moved to decent quality 3-season rectangular bags that can unzip at the foot and, fully to provide a quilt...
So back to camping quilts.
I bought a £50 version from that well-known website, which has a stuff sack, is quite warm as an additional layer and, as many of them do, can be 'worn' as a cloak with in-built clips and snapfasteners. Mine is also water resistant so can be used as a picnic blanket - or offset dusk damp when sitting outside.
There are more expensive and probably softer ones around, that hug the body rather better but the beauty is the space-saving.
Menopause is great also. Thoroughly recommended for personal central heating!!!!
As many have said, layers are the way to go, above and below.
P.S. I believe, also, that in trekking sleeping bag lore, with expensive down-bags, recommends you make like Marilyn Monroe and wear nothing but Chanel No 5: that makes them more efficient apparently, using the body's warmth.
------------- Camping - emotional resilience in action, a triumph of hope over adversity and antidote to virtual reality.
Something padded or quilt like on top of your SIM, that lets air flow, to replace the bottom of a sleeping bag, otherwise the SIM feels plasticky and sweaty to sleep on.
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Topic: Duvet instead of sleeping bag?
via mobile 21/1/2026 at 7:18pm
)! Most sleeping bags can be forced into a stuff sack and be reasonable compact, other bedding may suffer and not recover if overly tightly packed!
