No matter how much packing, playing, exploring, and cooking you do at camp eventually you will need to get some shut-eye. Which brings me to the letter 'S' for sleep. Whether we love it or not, we all need it. Without the proper equipment, you can guarantee yourself a restless and uncomfortable night which means sore body parts and grumpiness if it was me.
This looks comfy but definitely not suitable for camping.
The first year, my husband and I took the kids camping we first headed to Cabela's to find whatever it is that we would need for sleeping. I wanted a super warm sleeping bag so we picked up Cabela's Trapper Sleeping bags which have been perfect for me but we later found out, perhaps a little too warm for the boys.
Next, we needed something to put the sleeping bags on top of since gone are the days that I can just lay on a sleeping bag on the floor and call it a night. If I did that now, I would be sore in places I wouldn't know I could be sore in; I'm sure of it! Again, we shopped at Cabela's and decided on their Self-Inflating Sleeping Pad. I wasn't able to find the exact one we purchased but they were similar to a thin Therm-a-Rest Sleeping Pads.
We slept like this for a summer of weekend camp trips and one week-long trip. I will be honest and tell you, if it was only one, maybe two nights, totally doable, however the week-long event, had me stuffing a sack of clothes under my knees to ease the pain in my back.
The next year, we decided to invest in cots. Get us off the lumpy ground and also have extra space to store clothes under the cots! So yes, you guessed it, off to Cabelas's we went and purchased a few Camp Cots in Brown.
Photo Courtesy: “Inside the tent” by Sea Willis (Flickr.com Creative Commons)
So much better! The summer of the cots, we did two weeks straight in the tent and the cots made it so much better for sleep. I'm telling you, don't cheap on your sleep!
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Last year, we got a fantastic deal for a used well-taken care of Coleman's Pop-up trailer and it's just divine! (I don't think I have ever used the word divine to describe something but I just absolutely love it!) In the trailer, we have two king size thin mattresses. Following the previous owners suggestion, we got an egg crate mattress topper and then our sleeping bags on top of that. Extremely comfy.
There are so many options out there now-a-days, whether you are sleeping in a tent or a trailer. Check out all your options and ask your camping friends which items they would recommend. And also try things to see what works for you and improve as you go along your camping adventure.
This post is part of the #AtoZChallenge where I will be writing 26 posts in the month of April with the theme of Family Camping. This post is for the letter S; Check my Family Camping page for prior posts.
Nice!