camping... camping...?

Question

when camping out and sleeping on the ground, can you be warm with little or no insulation beneath you? why?.. thanks.

Answer 1

This is a lot more complicated than it sounds. The answer is that there are a lot of things getting and keeping you warm. They all work together.

I used to camp year round every other week, for a week. Three years of this, half my life during that time. Short story is that going to the ground every fall was sad but inevitable for me after sleeping in a hammock for three seasons as long as I could. Why? Because whether I was laying on the ground or hanging in the air could made the difference being snuggly warm and being miserably cold. Cold air circulating under you is brutal in cold weather and a blessing in hot weather. So when it started to get cold, I would trade my hammock in for a 6mm plastic ground cover and a rollup mat and turn my hammock tarp into a modified A frame that helped me more on the ground.

Once I was on the ground, yes, I always used a mat. The earth is pretty cold in the winter, esp when it is damp, even if you use a ground cover to bar moisture. So not insulating from the ground means that the earth is going to cool me down much faster than I am going to warm it up.

Note the two types of energy transfer involved here. Convection (heating or cooling with air) is how cold you get in a hammock. Conduction is easier to deal with but depends on the relative temps of the two things touching. Which is more than you asked to learn but something to consider. Actually when you hit the ground with a mattress...you harness convective properties in a good way because your mat has a lot of air pockets that are trapping warm air and keeping it next to you.

Some other things to remember. There are various ways of creating and preserving heat all...they all work together:

Generating heat is the first step to staying warm through the night. You do this during the day and just before bed by eating, hydrating, and moving. If you aren't generating enough heat, you won't be able to preserve it. (which is why hypothermia victims used to borrow someone else's body heat by shucking down with a warm person in the same sleeping bag)

Preserving heat, which includes using a mat underneath you...takes place in many ways. From the inside out, you insulate with: body fat, clothing, sleeping gear, shelter, campsite, and the atmosphere itself.

SO among other things, a mattress will help you stay warm.

Answer 2

Yes you can be warm. If your sleeping on warm ground during warm weather. I would like to answer the next question now. Can you sleep well ? No - comfort is very important If your thinking about doing this get a ground mat . My old bones complain enough in the morning for the both of us and I use a mat.
Happy Caving Carroll

Answer 3

layed clothing will keep you warm...i lived in the woods for 21 years...you did not say where you were ..or i could have given you more facts...good luck