Choosing a sleeping bag and accessories

Not being able to sleep well when you are out on an adventure is stressful, in order to enjoy it you should be rested. There are lots of different sleeping bags and not infrequently you think a little wrong when you get a sleeping bag. In addition, the sleeping bag is part of a system where both your sleeping clothes, sleeping mat and any tent or sleeping bag cover must work together.

I, Henrik at Röda Stjärnan, hope this guide will help you sleep better on your adventure! At the bottom, I also tell you about my choices and experiences.

The sleeping bag

The first thing you have to figure out is when and how to use your sleeping bag. It goes without saying that there is a huge difference between sleeping in a snow pit in minus 30 degrees or in a proper tent in the middle of summer. Be realistic, are you really outside when it's freezing? If you get a sleeping bag that can withstand freezing temperatures, it will be heavier but can also be too hot on a summer day.

Also consider if you are unusually large (there are bags that come in several sizes) and approximate price level. We offer all our sleeping bags at an effective price, but you get what you pay for. Feel free to invest in quality from Carinthia if you are going to use the sleeping bag a lot.

We at Röda stjärnan focus on synthetic bags, sleeping bags with down are extra sensitive to moisture and something we have choosen not to work with.

A sleeping bag for Swedish summer
A Swedish summer can be scorching hot, but also quite chilly. A common mistake is to buy an extremely thin sleeping bag, the cheapest you can find, and then have a chilly night. Expect it to be around 10 degrees in the evening, even in the middle of summer. With a sleeping bag adapted to this temperature, you can also cope with mild spring and autumn and can reinforce it with a liner or extra clothes if necessary. Should it get extremely hot, you can use the sleeping bag open, as a blanket. Several summer bags are unsuitable for overnight stays in, for example, wind shelters, even in summer. They then need to be reinforced with sleeping bag covers or warmer sleeping clothes. So think carefully about how you think your summer overnight stay will be.

A three-season sack
A sleeping bag that can survive down to zero degrees or just below is usually called a three-season bag. Such a sleeping bag can handle spring, summer and autumn, even in the mountains. The sack often becomes a bit heavier and bulkier, and it can also get really sweaty on a hot summer day. But for many, a three-season bag is a good choice as you rarely get cold even if you extend the season. Perhaps our most popular variant is the Carinthia Defence 4, a bag that lasts a lifetime and is extremely proven.

The winter sack
A winter bag must withstand many subzero temperatures, not infrequently they are meant to be used in arctic climates, in mountain terrain or other extreme environments. The sack is often both relatively large and heavy, and the price stands out. Often it can be better to buy a better three-season bag and then reinforce it with a liner, and maybe a thinner bag on the outside. But if you are often out in winter, you want a simple solution that protects you well, you should then aim for a comfort temperature of -20 or even colder.

A special solution is to have a sleeping bag system, where you have a thin sleeping bag and a three-season bag. When it's winter, you use both. You can then also use only the thin one on hot summer days. A popular sack is the Carithia Tropen, which reinforces a three-season sack for winter use. Whether system is genius or a bad compromise, scholars argue, spontaneously a system may not be the first thing one buys.

The sleeping pad

If you sleep outside, you have air, which conducts cold poorly, around you, except underneath. There, the ground will suck the heat out of you if you don't insulate properly. The ground is also often bumpy, with roots and stones that disturb sleep. A sleeping pad protects against the ground cold and unevenness. But sleeping mats are bulky and inflatables can be punctured. We therefore go through a few different models and what to think about below.

There are a number of different models of sleeping pads. On the one hand, the classic ones made of foam plastic in various thicknesses, there are waffled ones that provide more insulation at a lower weight and then there are inflatable ones. The elite use reindeer skins. The foam plastic ones roll up and are bulky, but usually cheap and insulate well. Those of simpler quality have large cells and are very light, the more proper ones are heavier but insulate better. Waffled sleeping mats are light but insulate well, as they have a built-in fold that encapsulates air. They also fold up into a loaf and don't take up as much space. The inflatable sleeping mats consist of airy foam plastic and air, they insulate well for a remarkably low weight. They have very good comfort, as long as they don't get holes in them, then they are useless.

Finally, you can work with thin and light bedding, but insulate with what is found in nature. Spruce rice is a classic, where you stick rushes into the ground, which creates a lovely bed. You then only need a thinner sleeping pad, or in extreme cases a canvas or blanket.

Hammocks and hammocks

Some people love to replace the sleeping pad with a hammock, a sort of field-style hammock that gets you off the ground. This has long been the obvious choice in the tropics and jungle, but has become more and more popular up north as well. Also works in winter, when you have a heating jacket, blanket or special insulated blankets under the hammock.

Compared to a sleeping mat, a hammock is very light and a small hammock takes up no more space than a grapefruit. The hammock is conveniently combined with a tarp.

It is, however, a matter of taste if you enjoy sleeping in a hammock, it takes a little agility to get in and out while lying like a little rascal in the hammock at night.

Sleeping bag covers, tarps and other protection

This guide doesn't cover tents, but sometimes you want your sleeping bag to work without a tent. To protect the bag from dirt and especially rain, you can use a sleeping bag cover, which is also called a bivvy bag, bivvy bag or puppa. They are usually made of Gore-Tex or similar membrane material that protects against rain and releases moisture. However, moisture tends to always collect on the inside of the pupa, especially at the feet. On the other hand, the pupa warms a little and protects against wind. A pupa can sleep in the open in the rain, but in practice it is difficult to stay completely dry, but lie under a tree and it protects very well. The bedding can be placed in the pupa or underneath, if the ground is stony, the bedding should be placed underneath to protect the pupa.

Another protection is a tarp, a kind of tarpaulin that protects against wind and rain. If you have a large enough tarp, it can be folded under the sack and over, so you are protected against moisture from below and rain from above. a tarp is very versatile and lightweight. It can also be used in combination with a pupa, the pupa protects against dirt and dew, the tarp protects against rain.

Own experiences and choices

I remember one of my first nights out, it was Lucia hike with the scouts, I wasn't old and it was cold. We slept in a wind shelter and I could look up at the starry sky. Despite the cold and my young age, I have no memory of freezing, unclear why.

I froze like an animal, on the other hand, in a survival course for young people in the defense, it was piss wet, the wind protection leaked like a sieve and I slept extremely well without a sleeping bag. Total misery.

So it went on, unclear sleeping bag choices and varying comfort, until I was in the army. There we had a substantial sleeping bag system from Carinthia. It is a system with a three-season bag and a thinner reinforcement bag, which we used with a pupa and regular sleeping mat. With around 100 days in the field and temperatures down to -35 degrees, including some nights in -30 with only a pupa in the snow, I learned a lot about sleeping outside. I got to know the sleeping bag system so well that I special ordered the sleeping bag system from Carithia, it was expensive. Now almost 14 years later, it is the only sleeping bag I have used. Civilly, there has been one night in -30, however in a tent, and lots of other nights both in tents and pupa.

Overall, I'm very happy with the sleeping bag, but it is military and is unnecessarily heavy and sturdy in parts. Having a sleeping bag system makes the bag heavier than a bag that is focused on a certain temperature. At the same time, the bag dries quickly as you can take the parts apart and air them out, even when I happen to get a really wet bag it can be dried under field conditions. But if I were to buy a new one, I would probably take a Carithia Defense 4.

I have more and more started to sleep in a pupa, preferably with a tarp over it as I have woken up in torrential rain a couple of times, getting a lot, not so much fun to change and prepare breakfast then. I even had pupa on the calf mountain one time, worked well until it rained. I have a thin sleeping pad from the German defense and reinforce it with fir rice underneath or lie on soft moss. Inflatables are nice, but once I woke up in the middle of the night because there was a hole in such a sleeping pad...

Personally, I haven't fallen for a hammock, I'm probably too mobile when I sleep.


Tips and tricks
- Don't wear too many clothes in your sleeping bag, an undershirt, a balaclava and a pair of very airy socks work best.

- Spend time on your ground, clear of sticks and stones, find a soft spot. Insulate properly from the ground cold.

- Fill a Nalgene bottle with warm water, pull a sock over it and you have a small element in the sleeping bag that heats and expels moisture.

- Do not dry too many clothes in the sleeping bag, a pair of socks and a thin sweater is usually the maximum.

- If it's cold, tighten the cold collar properly and tighten the sleeping bag around the face.

- Never breathe into the sleeping bag, the exhaled air is moist and quickly wets the bag.

- If two mice wake you up in the middle of the night when they have crawled into your sleeping bag and are playing rally track, don't panic.