Keeping Out the Cold
If you are thinking about buying sleeping bags for camping, make sure you consider these aspects before you get serious about making a purchase, because not all sleeping bags are created equally. This brief guide will cover the major differences between sleeping bags for sale as well as the features of sleeping bags specially designed for camping.
Shapes and Sizes
The first thing to determine when you are shopping for sleeping bags is what shape of bag you want. The three predominant types of sleeping bag are rectangular sleeping bags, tapered sleeping bags, and mummy sleeping bags. The key differences in these three bag designs center around the degree to which each kind of bag retains body warmth. After all, the purpose of a sleeping bag is to retain and recycle your own body heat as you sleep and your body's endogenous temperature naturally drops throughout the night.
Many people find rectangular sleeping bags to be most comfortable, as you have room within these to spread out and fan out your limbs. Unfortunately, the rectangular sleeping bags are also the least effective at retaining body warmth. Mummy bags are designed to be the most effective at retaining natural bodily warmth, yet they are also the most restrictive, which is irritating or uncomfortable to some campers. Mummy bags are so named because they fit tightly to the entire body and include tight hoods which only leave the face of the camper exposed. Some people find this level of encapsulation to be comforting, even oceanic, hence their freudian joke-name within the nerdiest of camper circles: Mommy bags.