Useful Camping Bed Hacks
Sleeping in a tent usually sounds like a cosy, relaxing experience, but to all those who have camped before, they know it is quite the opposite. Nothing’s worse than knowing you have a busy day tomorrow and you’re trying to sleep on bumpy terrain in a freezing tent.
A sleepless night can potentially ruin the mood for the next day, and persistent sleepless nights can put a damper on your whole trip. But luckily, there are ways to make your tent a cosier place to sleep.
1. Foam Flooring
Foam flooring can help even out the terrain your tent is pitched on, and is much easier to walk and sleep on. Some people opt for a fitted foam sheet that is cut to size for their tent, but others use smaller foam pieces that attach to one another like a jigsaw. The latter would be easier to pack and carry, but it depends entirely on how you plan to travel and how far you plan on walking to the campsite itself.
2. Take Some Bedding From Home
We mentioned this hack in our Camping on a Budget and in our How to Stay Warm in a Tent article, but this hack also seems to be at home here. Using duvets, comforters or blankets from your own home adds way more comfort to your camping experience, and are easier to sleep with than those blankets you bought specifically for camping with that are sat in the shed for half a year. One downside to this hack is that your own bedding can be incredibly bulky and hard to carry, but if you’re traveling by car it can be made much more manageable. It’s also important to take bedding which you don’t mind mucking up, as any camping trip has the possibility of getting very messy and dirty. These seem like small prices to pay if you want a good night’s sleep, however.
3. Elevated Camping Cots
Elevated camping cots are a worthy investment if you want the experience of sleeping in a bed, despite not being in a bed. They may not be ideal for everyone though, as they might not fit into some smaller tents. And unless you’re purchasing a double-sized camping cot, they’re incredibly easy to roll off if you move in your sleep. Camping cots are advised for those sleeping in places which can get particularly wet and windy, as if there’s a leak or the potential for puddles to form in the base of the tent, the camping cot will keep you elevated and dry. Luckily, there are ways to waterproof your tent if it does spring a leak whilst camping.
4. Use a Bundle as a Pillow
Pillows are bulky and very hard to pack when camping, and inflatable ones usually have a habit of deflating really quickly. One way around this is to not take a pillow when camping, but instead use a bundle of other camping items in replacement. For example, a t shirt, pair of shorts and the next day’s underwear bundled up inside a hoodie or pullover make an excellent replacement for a pillow. And if you are dead set on taking a pillow, it doesn’t hurt to prop that one up with a bundle.
5. Take a Hot Water Bottle
Cold feet can keep you up for hours as you try to fall asleep, and with how cold it can get when camping in the middle of nowhere, you need a way to keep yourself warm. Wearing multiple layers when camping to keep yourself warm seems like a neat idea until you awake early in the morning in a sweat. One way to get around this is to boil some water over the campfire and carefully pour it into a hot water bottle. Hot water bottles are small and easy to carry, which makes them ideal for a cold night outdoors.
If you’re planning on using this trick with your kids, make sure to take the bottle away once they fall asleep, in case it leaks in the night.
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