What Sleeping Gear
Is Best For You?

Learn the positives and negatives of different types of sleeping gear and slumber soundly.

There are several types of sleep gear for camping, hiking, and backpacking each with their advantages and disadvantages.

Finding the gear that is right for you depends on what is important to you.

Air beds, air mattresses, camping cots, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads all offer different amounts of comfort, insulation, weight, durability, and bulk. Because chances are you are going to want different gear for two weeks of campground camping than if you spent two months hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Obviously if you are going on extended backpacking trips weight is going to become an important issue, and carrying a 20 pound cot around on your back probably wouldn't last long. But if you are car camping than the weight and bulk of your equipment used for camping isn't going to be as big a deal.

Since this is a big topic I'm not going to try to cover everything on one page, I've divided it up. To find out which is best for you, take a look at the air beds, air mattresses, camping cots, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads pages and decide what sleeping gear is right for you.