Tips for sleeping warm with no external heat sources......

Urban Winter Emergency Shelters | Practical Survivor

I built one of these for a "Mock Bug Out for a 'contest' over at Zombie Squad a few Winters ago.
Instead of the Styrofoam inside, I put a reflective blanket over the top. Inside I had 3 layers of cardboard, a Refxtrix ground pad with a USGI foam pad on top. For the rest, I had a single wool blanket. The blanket was folded double.

On my head was a balaclava, on my feet, felt booties and a base layer of polypro covered by a sweatsuit.

Outside, it was -7 to -10F, inside, it quickly came up to about 30F and under the blanket it was 67F, for me comfortable.

The space was small enough that even turning over over was a pain, but it meant that I had little air to heat.

It isn't a long term shelter, rigid foam would be better.

 

Sleeping naked in your bag makes a huge difference. It lets the heat from the central hot spots get to the cold extremities.

 

My house dosent have central heating, we use a fireplace for heat but when it gets cold (last week's weather shipped direct from Siberia thank you very much) even that struggles to keep things cozy just in the living room much less the rest of the house.
Best investment I ever made was 2 "fluffy" 100% wool blankest (1 heavy weight, 1 med) and a wool mattress topper.
Even if its freezing in the bedroom.. Strip off & crawl into bed and within a minute or 2 everythings cozy & warm. They regulate your body temp really well also so no "to hot, augh...sweating, now to cold. "
Just toasty warm
Vast improvment over heated blanket. (id always wake up an hour after it switched off, drenched in sweat & then get chilled.) and the down comforter which kinda did the same (either to hot or to cold.)

this is what the med weight one looks like ( the heavy one is roughly double the thickness .. )

 

Here is what I do -

In my area during the year temperature ranges between +100 degrees F and -40 degrees F.

1) Carry a "tick mattress". This is like a big pillow case that is 4-ft wide by 8-ft long. Used by hundreds of thousands of civil war soldiers in the USA 1800's. Carried rolled up and light weight.
2) Fill the case with dry leaves or green tree boughs so it is a mattress a couple feet thick.
3) Put on warm clothes such as wool sweaters, pants, warm socks, hat, etc if need be.
4) Use as many wool blankets as needed.
5) Place the filled tick mattress on the ground (beside a fire perhaps).
6) Lay the blankets atop the mattress.
7) Climb in between the mattress and blankets.

You can also pile more dry leaves over your sleep system as needed.

You will stay warm.

 

Years ago I was traveling through Colorado up on Wolf Creek pass at 10pm at night. I was tired, so I pulled over at a wide spot and walked into the woods and proceeded to set up my tent and camp.

I had my blue heeler/aussie shepard mix with me. She was a good fuzzy door bell. She slept in the tent with me and about 2 in the morning I woke up shivering in a down bag. It was cold! She was outside the bag and cold too!

I pulled her into the bag and we both slept like babies after that! A dog's temperature is about 101F so we both warmed each other.

In the morning I broke camp and loaded the car. After a few 100 feet down the road there was the summit sign 10,850 ft! No wonder it was cold!!

 

Down bags suck. They absorb moisture like a sponge and I haven't seen one yet that is anywhere close to what the rating says it's good for. We had them in the military and they were awful.

 

No bag will perform being wet.
I have down bag that cooks me. but then I have extraordinary circulation .In the winter I take a shot of cider vinegar every other day or so.
I have a problem with inflatable pads but I'm going to try out something different when I can.
I collected the bags restaurants get their milk in . I think that wine also comes on similar boxes with a plastic bladder inside ..
All I need to do is make a bag that houses these bags and they are likely to stand up better than the junk available .
Beyond that they can be used to haul water to camp and for that matter make a water bed . Beyond that, one could with fore thought compensate for irregularities in the ground making strategic bags tighter and/or lesser in it's configuration .

 

Back in the day, when I was a member of the Australian Cadet Corps, and in the early years of my reservist service, we were issued with a large burlap bag called a palliasse palliasses which we would fill with fresh, dry straw, to use in lieu of a cot, or stretcher, or camp bed. The straw smelled pleasant, but it had to be changed periodically to deter infestation with crawling, biting critters.



WW2 British military Palliasse field bed dated 1945 | #311681009





Via: Uniform - 40th of foot


Palliasse - Wikipedia

 

aint that the dumest thing you have EVER heard of
BUT
at air force winter survival POW training....some island off Washington state.....we were trained to survive using our parachute.........we took 1/3 of a parachute..rolled it up into a pie shaped bag
we were told to sleep naked to stay warm
most of the guys called it BS....and dressed in every thing they had
i forget how cold it got...the wind was blowing with a light snow2 or 3 inches in the am
only 3 of us were naked the first night....undressing in the blowing snow was cold, the rest of the group made fun of us..we made a bed of grass and leaves with our "bag" on top
we 3 were nice and warm all night.......the other guys FROZE
( later they told us if it was colder ,just roll up more of the parachute...but still crawl in naked)
the second night half the guys undressed....the third night most every body undressed
we learned to make a deep bed of grass and leaves
MOST OF US learned to do as we were told
we were just one company...nothing special 120 men or so
severial men were beat up but they stayed and returned with us.
1 man went nuts..........was air lifted out..and was never heard from again

 

Yep. I learned that at Cold Weather Training at Folgaria, Italy. It wasn't internet lore or my Texas nudist spirit leaking out.

The same goes for wearing a union suit for base layer in cold weather. Beside, who wants to keep pulling down shirts and pulling up long handles all day?

I try to tell y'all when it's opinions vs. knowledge.

 

Take everything (except boots) off inside the bag and kick it to the bottom. There's no reason to heat empty bag space. Clean boots, LBE, and coat always made a good little prop for my head.

Plus I knew where my ammo, weapon, boots and coat were if I had to beat feet in a hurry against the red menace.

I'd have at least that much in seconds.

 

Styrofoam peanuts work well and little critters don't like them.....

 

You are correct. They suck the heat right out of you when wet. The key is to keep them dry.

 

Just thought as I revisited the thread, wouldn't it be cold at the stitches?

Even above ground, insulation under is important. I froze my butt off in the mountains (in Hawaii). I was off the ground, but did not have insulation or at least a wind barrier under me. Who woulda thunk it. It gets cold even here. But now I am much much older and a little bit less stupider.

 

A good down bag has overlapping or offset cells.

 

Gotcha. I was just thinking if I were to sew together pillow cases to hold pillows, it would look like the quilted picture and be cold at the stitching points.

 

Back in the old days, when we were out and about, we would always use German issued ponchos. They were rubberized or some thing. It could get real cold at night but you would cover your entire body, with the exception of your face, with the poncho. You would use your boonie to cover most of your head. We always had a cold site in some god forsaken thicket, so body heat was your ONLY heat. Worked great. I often would remove my belt with the butt pack and use the butt pack as a pillow of sorts.
Of course I was much younger and a hell of a lot harder back then.
Just adding my two cents to this discussion...For What is worth

 

Put Amy Schumer in your sleeping bag.