It’s a gorgeous morning, and Ann stayed warm during the cold night. We’ve now tried a number of different ways for her to keep warm at night. Read on if you’re interested in what we’ve learned.

• Sleeping Pad. This seems to be the most crucial element to staying warm at night for Ann. Consistently her Thermarest 3/4-length ultralight pad keeps her warm, a Z-Rest or foam pad does not. This was true pretty much regardless of the other things we tried.
• Go to bed warm. We now do what we call “bedtime calisthenics”. Jump around and get warm before getting into the bag.
• Wear warm clothes to bed. Some people suggested we sleep naked or in just long underwear. I tried it, and I’m definitely warmer when I wear more layers.
• Zip-together bags are OK. When Ann does the above things, it doesn’t seem to make much difference if we’re in our own bags or zipped together. It may help that I’m a warm sleeper, though.
• Check bag loft. One of our older bags is losing its loft, and what’s left is uneven. It doesn’t cut it on a cold night anymore. Some people have suggested shining a bright light through a bag to see where the filling is uneven.

Other things people suggested that we haven’t tried are putting a bottle of warm water in the bag before bed (couldn’t hurt!), and of course just getting a warmer bag.