If you go RVing, camping, or boating for more than a few hours at a time you are going to need a good place to sleep. A comfortable bed sometimes seems like a luxury but actually it is absolutely essential. Sure, you can push things and skip a few hours of rest now and then, but sooner or later it will catch up with you. If you want to enjoy your outings to the fullest, figure out how to get a good night's sleep every night you are out. And that means having a good bed!
Getting a good night's sleep when you are away from home can be challenging. It isn't unusual to experience difficult sleeping away from home even if you are in an expensive, comfortable resort hotel with excellent beds. The problems are greatly magnified the more different your environment is from what you are used to at home. Sleeping in your RV, tent, or boat is going to take some getting used to and perhaps some adjustments. Obviously the bed will be different, sometimes VERY different but there a a lot of little things like lights, sounds, and smells that might interfere with sleeping, things we normally don't even notice or think about at home. Rain and wind on a tent or even the roof of an RV or boat cabin will be much louder and disconcerting than it is at home. Tents flap and RVs and boats rock in the wind, something most of our homes never do. Even strong, mature folks may find themselves cowering like they did as kids when the thunder and lightning booms and flashes.
One very common problem of sleeping in an RV, a tent, or a boat is that the bed isn't always as comfortable as the one you have at home. It makes more sense to invest a lot of money in a good bed at home. After all, we use it every day and spend about 1/3 of our lives in it! We are often reluctant to spend the money to make the beds in our recreational activities as comfortable since they aren't used as often. Limited space together with weight limitations may also restrict our choices. As a result, we often pay the price in terms of aches and pains and fatigue that negatively impacts the activities we have so been looking forward to enjoying.
What you are sleeping on most likely has the biggest impact on how well you will sleep. True, there are other factors such as strange noises or smells and different temperatures, but for sure you aren't going to sleep very well if your sleeping bag is right on a rough patch of ground with twigs and rocks that poke you all night or your mattress is too hard or too soft. RV and boat mattresses are all too often designed more to conserve weight than to be good for sleeping on. The beds in RVs and boats are often too hard (not enough padding) or too soft (too much or the wrong kind of padding). Either way, you are not going to sleep well. Fortunately, RV and boat mattresses can be upgraded. Sometimes all it takes is a good mattress topper to make one of these beds more comfortable. We typically use a 3" memory foam mattress toppers in our RVs and boats. These tend to compensate for mattresses that are either too thin, too hard, or too soft. Most modern memory foam products provide pretty good ventilation so they don't cause the "too warm" problems often associated with older foam mattresses. The upgrade is well worth the investment to get a good night's sleep on outings.
For tent camping many people use sleeping pads. Most sleeping pads are 1/2"or less thick and made of a fairly dense foam that protects against sharp debris and provides some padding beneath you. Sleeping pads are never going to give you the same level of comfort and support you get from a thick mattress at home but they can go along way toward mitigating the problems of being on cold ground or lying on top of rough stuff. They should be thick enough and sturdy enough to protect you from cold rough ground but light enough to be easily carried to and from your camp site. Backpackers sometimes opt for a short pad that only reaches from shoulders to hips but longer pads will do a better job of keeping your sleeping bag (and you) up off the cold, rough ground. If one pad isn't enough to be comfortable for you, try using two. Air mattresses are another popular option for tent campers. As long as you don't have a leak in the mattress they can provide several inches of comfortable support and they are adjustable. You can add or extract air to make them harder or softer to suit your needs. They are light weight and when deflated take a very little room for so they are good for hiking and back packing. Most air mattresses can be fairly easily inflated simply by blowing air into them. Manual and battery powered pumps are available if your lungs aren't up to the task. There are even some self-inflating mattresses that expand and draw air in when they are unrolled.
The beds in RVs and boats may or may not be the same size and shape as residential mattresses. If they are you can usually use standard sheets and blankets. If they are not, you may have to make temporary or permanent adjustments to get your bedding to fit. Temporary adjustments can usually be made by tucking excess material under the mattress. Permanent changes require cutting and sewing the bedding to fit the specific mattress shape and size. RVs sometimes have corners cut off beds to facilitate movement around the RV. Queen and King RV beds are usually a little smaller than their residential counterparts. Boats often have a primary bed in the bow called a V-berth. The V-berth in our 25' sailboat is a bit wider than a queen bed at the head and only 9" wide at the foot. Sometimes you can buy commercially made replacement mattresses to fit RVs and boats. If you can't find one that fits you can make or have one made of foam to fit exactly. Be sure to try out various thicknesses and densities of foam to make sure you get one that meets your personal needs. If is too thin it won't be comfortable; if it is too thick it may take up too much room in your RV or boat. If it is too soft it will collapse and you will end up sleeping on the hard platform beneath it. If it s too hard, it will not let you get comfortable. Either way, you are not going to get a good night's sleep.
Cots are a way of making sleeping in a tent a little closer to sleeping at home. They get you up off the ground and that often makes it easier to get in and out of bed as well as keeping you off the twigs and rocks under your tent floor and off the cold ground. That can be especially helpful for older people or people with physical disabilities that inhibit movement. Most camp cots are made of canvas and that together with the flexing of the frame provides a little bit of springiness, but nothing close to your box springs at home. A good sleeping pad or air mattress is will still usually be needed for comfort and the best rest. If you have room to transport them you can even buy "real" mattresses to fit cots.
Modern memory foam mattress toppers can be a boon for many situations. They work especially well in RVs and boats but you might use them to good advantage when tent camping if you have enough room to cart them around. They come in various firmnesses and thicknesses so be sure to find one that meets your needs. Thinner pads will be lighter and easier to carry while thicker ones will be more comfortable.
Careful choice of sleeping pads or mattresses can ensure you get the best sleep possible in camp or on your boat. The closer you can match your bed -- and in fact all your sleeping conditions -- to the environment you enjoy at home, the more comfortable you will be and the better you will sleep.
Don't just lay there!
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