Thursday, April 5, 2012

Types of Sleeping Bags

By Shayne Minney


Sleeping bags work by trapping warm air created by the body to prevent it from cooling off. The larger the airspace inside the bag, the less efficient the insulation properties of the bag. There are mainly three styles of sleeping bags which includes the mummy shaped bag, the tapered down sleeping bags and the rectangular bag. Because of its particular shape, each design has different insulating properties and depending on the fill inside, will do better job of keeping the person inside warm.

Effectiveness has almost everything to do with shape and specifically, with how little or how much airspace there's to heat the bag. The more there's airspace, the more there's to heat which mean less heating. Mummy and tapered shaped bags decrease the quantity of airspace within the bag and therefore are hotter than rectangular bags.

The mummy has become a higher performance, light-weight standard for sleeping bags. Since the quantity of area within a mummy bag is limited by its shape, it is the style most frequently selected for journeys of all types. It is practically de rigueur for all those expedition style camping journeys that border on daredevil adventures in to the frozen wilderness.

A good fitting bag will keep you hotter than the usual looser one will. But when you're doing the majority of your sleeping in spring and summer time, you will not require extra heavy duty temperature protection. Temperatures at higher elevations will be cooler than in low-lying locations. So, if you're traveling in Alaska or New-foundland, temperatures during the night might also be cool in the summertime.

There is no hood present in the rectangular sleeping bags at all and in the face of colder weather does not offer the same insulating properties as mummy sleeping bags. Shape is also a factor that determines the insulation. If there is more airspace to warm inside the sleeping bag which means less efficiency in keeping you warm. Some manufacturers offer a compromise between the mummy and the rectangular bag. A tapered bag with fold down hood that isn't as wide as a rectangular sleeping bag, but not as constraining as a mummy sleeping bag.

In addition to their reduced efficiency, rectangular sleeping bags are often heavier and bulkier. Thus they are a less-than-ideal choice for backpackers, who often encounter colder temperatures. Any sleeping bag should feel as though it would be warm and cozy in cool weather, but also allow you to loosen it up or fold it down when temperatures heat up.




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