Choosing a Campsite Sleeping Pad for Comfort on Uneven Ground

When you're choosing a sleeping pad for camping, the most important characteristic is how well it supports your body for sleep. At first glance, the thicker sleeping pads look like the best option for comfort, but structure, insulation, shape, and packed size all play important roles in how well a sleeping pad will work for you. Because you store your sleeping pad outside of your tent during the day, the packed size is an important consideration for campers who have a long hike to their campsite for the night. A good sleeping pad will help support your body for sleep and provide adequate insulation from cold ground to keep you warm throughout the night.

Start with the ground beneath the tent

Most campsites have more than one site available, to accommodate late arrivals, and sites are generally cleared of sharp debris. Clearing a site and inspecting it for sharp objects before laying out your sleeping position, even if the site appears to be a flat surface, can reveal root protrusions and stones. Brushing away debris, or even repositioning the tent to a better pitched site, helps to create a comfortable surface for sleeping. Your camp pad should support you in this.

Above all don't dig trenches in the ground. The ground may look flat but it will have pressure points that can cause discomfort and even damage your tent fabric. Remove sharp objects such as stones and twigs from the ground before you set up your tent. It's also important to remember to follow campsite rules regarding grounds that have been previously disturbed.

By understanding the direction that a slope lies, an uneven ground site can become easier to manage. An excellent site would be one where a camper can sleep in a configuration that follows the fall of the ground. In other words, rather than slithering across to a pointed corner, for example, sleep in a direction that generally follows the slope of the ground. The most comfortable and safe site of all is always going to be a better pitch than one on uneven ground.

Match pad construction to the pressure points

When choosing a ground pad as a backpacker, consider where you tend to feel pressure while sleeping. A side sleeper will feel pressure at their shoulders and hips, a back sleeper at their lower back. A restless sleeper will need a lot of surface area to prevent rolling to the edge of the pad and having to reposition in the middle of the night.

For mildly uneven ground an air pad's adjustable cushioning can be useful. The amount of support given by the pad can be increased by adding more air, and then decreased slightly to allow the pad to conform to small inequalities in the ground by reducing the pressure of the air in the pad.

To add support to sleeping, foam pads make good camping sleeping pads as they are hard to puncture. However, they can be quite bulky. Also, they do not have as much cushioning to distribute pressure from the ground when there are roots or stones in the ground.

Just because a pad is thick doesn't mean it will be comfortable. The structure of the pad, how well it's going to support your body, edge support and how much you can compress or stiffen it up within the tent are going to be far more important factors to how comfortable you are than just the thickness of the mattress.

Do not separate comfort from insulation

There is also the issue of the ground robbing heat from your sleeping bag. A sleeping pad can serve as some form of insulation and its 'insulation' must also be considered when evaluating its comfort. The pad's insulation will affect the amount of heat that is lost to the ground, which in turn will affect your comfort and how warm you feel.

In selecting an air-filled sleeping pad the camper must consider how the air in the pad will behave when used for sleep in cold weather. Whilst a pad intended for very mild weather may be quite sufficient for an afternoon's sleep, it will be surprisingly cold the next night and should be excluded from serious consideration for overnight camping. A pad for cold weather camping will have suitable insulation for the coldest conditions on the trip and will be suitable for variable weather with changes in elevation.

Note also that cold discomfort can often present itself as fit problems. It may feel as though you are lying on a hard surface when in fact you are losing heat through the floor of your tent. Try to choose an insulated sleeping pad and also ensure that you have brought a suitable groundsheet or tent floor.

Test the fit before leaving home

Measuring a pad at home does not necessarily give an accurate picture of how it will perform in a tent. Ground which seems flat in the day can become uncomfortably sloping at night, and there can be pressure points which are not immediately obvious. It is best to set up the pad at home and test it out, either on the floor or on a bed, in the sort of sleeping position that you normally adopt.

Some sleeping pads are longer than others and it is important to ensure that the one you have chosen is going to fit your tent. Remember that the internal dimensions of your tent will be smaller than the external ones. A tapered tent may be narrower at the bottom than at the top and two wide pads can spread out and push against each other or even up against the ground inside your tent. On solo trips a full-length pad can be beneficial for warmth but on tight or ultralight trips a shorter pad can be useful to save space for your other gear.

And does the mattress make any noise? In your home, turning and tossing in the night could cause some 'crinkly' sounds that you may not like. Even if you are on your own on your next hiking adventure, your partner may not appreciate the sounds of your restless sleep. So test your mattress out and make sure that deflating and packing up the mattress is going to be easy.

Make the choice fit the whole trip

Also, remember that there is lots of other ground to be covered (i.e. other aspects of the journey) between arriving at the tent site and off to sleep in your new pad. The gear has to be capable of supporting your longer day(s) out in the country. Will it fit in your pack? Will it take up too much room for other essential items (e.g. repair kit, etc.)?

In addition, it is good to bring a repair kit to small leaks or other failures of a camping mattress with valve. Inspect your air mattress before you go camping for dirt, damage, or a slow leak. Avoid to drag an inflated mattress over sharp stones. Small habits can protect you from sleepless nights very well.

The best pad for a late arrival is one that will provide sufficient cushioning for specific areas, adequate insulation for night time temperatures and enough room to fit comfortably within your tent. Combine this with a quality site assessment and the uneven ground becomes a manageable design issue rather than a reason for losing sleep.