Gelert Beyond Sleeping pods are a great answer for those who don't like traditional sleeping bags, loads of room to move around, you can even get into as foetal position if that's how you normally sleep.
Insulation above and below the airbed are a great call too.
------------- Coming soon to a campsite near you, Jake, Mrs Jake, Little legs, Bosdog the Doodle and Olly the Cavachon.
2014:
August: Scarborough, High Yedmandale. Not tenting though, using one of their lovely holiday homes!
Decent sleeping bags make all the difference.Mind due my missus and kids think im a radiator.She just snuggles up to me in our double bag if shes feeling he cold.It doesnt bother me as much tbh.
Get a fishing sleepingbag, more room than you could ever want and designed for really cold weather too.Ive been out in mine in minus temperatures in febuary yet still nice and warm.
Lots of good advice about bedding and things above.
As far as I understand this men and children tend to have a higher basal metabolic rate than women so are more likely to stay warm. However, you can give your body a kick start before you go to bed. I find this really helps especially bike camping when I tend to get really cold once I stop cycling. Just before you get into bed:
1) Change your clothes (I think this is just because it makes you naked for a bit),
2) Have something hot to eat or drink (or just something to eat if it can't be hot),
3) Run round the tent twenty times or do 50 star jumps!
I use a picnic blanket under the air bed and a foam mat on top of the air bed then a sheet ,then my quilt and a fleece blanket snug as a bug. If it wasnt for the foam mat i would freeze found that out last week.also wear pj bottoms a t shirt fleece jumper and socks. Have thought about a double sleeping bag but hate being restricted.
Iv looked at the reviews for the Gelert beyond sleeping pods and they are all very good, if I dont get one for this season il drop hints for christmas /birthday present !
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Also if you tend to get cold feet when sleeping, I find this old trick really helpful. Get a pair of socks with a high wool content, preferably the hand knitted type. Keep this pair of socks only for sleeping, since they need to be dry at all times.
Cotton socks, however thick, are not a patch on a really decent pair of wool socks. I've also made the mistake of going to bed with the socks I've worn all day, they are not dry and they freeze my feet!
A fleece neckwarmer can also be handy as well as a hat. Also if the morning light is too bright, you can slide the neckwarmer over your eyes in the morning and get more of a lie in!
------------- My OH is convinced that a permanent raincloud follows my tent where ever it is pitched. Apparently, I could end all drought and famine in Africa simply by pitching my tent there!
The socks are thick and furry. The leggings actually reach your ankles and cover your backside, and the thermal tops are also generous in length, so stay tucked in, with no bare back halfway through the night!
Best place I've found, for prices on the high street, is Yeoman's.
Add the odd balaclava, a fisherman's 5 season sleeping bag, camp bed & SIM combo, a slug o' Baileys, and the love of a good woman, and you can lie back, and laugh in the face of the 2 inches of snow on your tent!!
I've still got the old carrymats my kids used to take to scout and guide camp, so I slide those under the double airbed. Then I put a couple of SIMS on top, then a layer of the white, opaque plastic sheeting you get in packaging, then a big woolly blanket, then a thick winter sheet. Then two hot water bottles, then me and OH, then a big duvet and then another blanket. Our bedding bags do take up a lot of car, but I realise how worth the space they are when it's an hour after bedtime and I'm dropping off cosy and warm instead of freezing.
I second what Kate has said, the change of clothes, the hot drink (I add a nip of brandy or whisky ), and the running around the tent are all really good. (If you run around the site, as I once did at Bromyard Folk Festival, make sure you take note of where you are camped. It's no fun at all playing 'seek the tent' in the dark on a full festival field!)
We've also found that putting in the hot bottles an hour before we turn in takes the edge of cold out of the airbed and makes it just that little bit warmer to start the night.
I got some heat holders socks in Matalan for about £6. They are quite the warmest things I've ever had on my feet.
Are the thermals furry like the socks? If so, I really want some! Think how much I could save on my heating bills this winter with fluffy heat holder thermals....
Dogs on the bed help keep you warm too. Nothing better than snuggling down between a warm dog and a hot man!
I wear a hat and a neck scarf when I go camping in winter, and wear PJ to bed.
I prefer hat and neck scarf combo over balaclava as I don't like to have my face covered.
However, I camp with EHU and have a fan heater on low overnight.
DK
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We put foam camping mats under our airbeds and then just use a sheet and a duvet. I always take a fleece blanket too and pop that over my side as I feel the cold whilst hubby roasts his bits off.
There was a thread on here about onesies - isn't it funny that no-one has mentioned them at all - obviously not made for the colder nights.
We had a few cold nights recently in yorkshire - for me I had a pair or leggings and a really warm thermal long vest , fleece Pjs, a little fleece short dressing gown, wooly socks, a rabbit hot water bottle and a couple of toddies of whisky. My OH well, he just wore his Pj's - warm blooded you know - we both woke at the same time (6ish - early for us) feeling a little chilly. But on the whole we fared rather well.
Yes I agree about getting into Pjs (whatever) long time before you go to bed - just about then you start thinking of the toddies!
My eldest who camps at festivals and with Guides swears by a nice warm hat! She's got a great collection of weird and wonderful hats!
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That fluffy fleece is wonderful heat trapping material, the one that looks like a teddy bear's tummy. Get yourself a track suit set made of that, stick thermal long johns and long sleeved thermal undershirt underneath. Warm wool socks (dry ones) on.
Then if still too cold, consider the same fluffy fleece blanket on top of your sleeping bag, it effectively adds on a season to it.
That is, on top of those tips with those with airbeds: insulation underneath, over the top, and something to hold it in place.
Personally I got tired with air beds breaking, slow set up time etc. so went with camp beds, fold out Vango ones, no assembly required all out the bag and fold out 30 seconds, SIM on top, fleece blanket for comfort, then sleeping bag. Bliss. Cold nights? Add fluffiest blanket on top.
The other thing that people who get cold can do, is to wear too little before going to bed. I'm always, including the Summer season, taking an old down jacket and I wear that in the evenings. And a fluffy fleece hat. I'm lovely toasty warm even before I get to bed.
And I've seen too many women, they're always us women, who feel the cold, in cotton hoodies telling me that camping is too cold for them. I'll tell you, if I was in a cotton hoodie I would also give up camping because it was too cold...
------------- My OH is convinced that a permanent raincloud follows my tent where ever it is pitched. Apparently, I could end all drought and famine in Africa simply by pitching my tent there!
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Topic: Dealing with cold night?
), and the running around the tent are all really good. (If you run around the site, as I once did at Bromyard Folk Festival, make sure you take note of where you are camped. It's no fun at all playing 'seek the tent' in the dark on a full festival field!) 
