Quilts Are Better Than Sleeping Bags

I used to say all my good days started with waking up in a sleeping bag. Waking up in a sleeping bag usually means you’re out somewhere, doing something fun. However, over the past few years, I’ve been waking up and having fun days and doing fun things, but without a sleeping bag. Instead, I’m sleeping in what long-distance hikers and ultralight redditors call a quilt.

This is not the same cotton that your grandfather gave you. Carrying goods quilts are made of nylon and are filled with down like a A traditional sleeping bag. The difference is that they lay on you like, well, a quilt, instead of being wrapped around you like a sleeping bag. The benefit is two-fold: The suit is lighter, meaning less weight to carry in your pack, and, as an added bonus, I sleep better than I did on the back.

Mummified

Let’s face it, there’s a reason backpackers call sleeping bags “mommy bags.” They’re stuck at the best of times, they’re just so tired. I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s nothing I want to do with mom, even when I’m sleeping. So, I was as excited as anyone to jump on the quilt bandwagon when it first took off a few years ago. And yet, I didn’t. Maybe it was like Stockholm Syndrome; I agreed with the ladies and, to be honest, I was a little scared to leave my sleeping bag to get dressed. But then I did, and I will never come back. Or at least never come back.

But first, what is the difference between a sleeping bag and a quilt? As briefly explained above, the quilt goes over you, not around you like a sleeping bag. Think burrito versus taco. In this case, a sleeping bag/quilt and a tortilla and you are full. Would you like to be wrapped like a burrito? A sleeping bag. Love the classic classic taco, with its warm, soft tortilla on top of you? You are (probably) a useless person.

The science here is that when you sleep in your sleeping bag, the weight of your body forces more of the floor to fill the sides. The bottom left of your floor is compact so you don’t get any real insulation from it – so why carry that extra nylon and go down around it? Enter the ears. Quilts remove the useless nylon layer from the floor, and lie on top of you like a quilt on your bed at home. Quilts usually weigh less than sleeping bags and pack smaller, making them popular with backpackers trying to reduce weight and save space.

While I think the weight makes quilts a good choice for anyone looking to pack light, how you prefer a quilt over a sleeping bag depends on how you sleep. If you’re a taco person, and the thought of having a sleeping bag rolled up like a burrito makes you sweat just thinking about it, a quilt is your happy, happy future. Or, if you like to curl up in a ball, move around a lot at night, and sleep on your side, or want to share the covers with your tent, then again, the quilt is for you.

If you don’t move around much at night, you’re sleeping like a mom, then you won’t be happy with a traditional sleeping bag and you won’t share my interest in a quilt.