850 fill, rated -2C comfort, and I've been cold twice now on nights around 3C. Not dangerously, but awake and shivering by 4am. Sleeping in base layers on a 3.2 R-value inflatable, in a single skin shelter. I'm a cold sleeper but this is a bigger gap than I expected. Quilt or something else?
Eat something before bed. A cold 4am after a long walk and a small dinner is often a fuelling problem, because your body stops running the furnace when there's nothing to burn. A hundred calories of something fatty at bedtime has fixed more of my cold nights than any gear change.
Single skin means condensation, and damp down loses loft fast. If the top of the quilt felt clammy in the morning, that's a ventilation problem rather than an insulation one. Pitch with more airflow than feels sensible.
Check what you're sleeping in more carefully too. The base layer you hiked in costs you real warmth even when it feels dry. Dedicated dry sleep layers are 200g well spent.
@onebag_ozzy · 6mo ago · 3 replies
Almost certainly the mat and the draughts rather than the quilt.
3.2 R-value is a summer mat. Ground conduction makes people cold at these temperatures far more often than top insulation does, and a mat that's fine at 10C pulls heat out of you steadily at 3C. R-4.5 or better is where most people stop being cold in the shoulder season, and the cheapest fix is a 3mm closed cell foam pad underneath, which adds about R-2 for 200g.
Second, quilts leak. Loose pad straps or a roller means a bellows effect every time you move, and 4am is when it shows up because your body temperature is at its lowest and you've been shifting for hours. Cinch the footbox, snug the straps, and use a neck baffle or a scarf across the top edge.
Third, ratings come from a lab with a defined setup and generally assume a full base layer on an appropriately warm mat. Cold sleepers routinely want 5-8C of margin. That isn't a defect in your quilt.
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@weatherfront_wu · 6mo ago
Added a foam pad under the inflatable and slept through 1C without waking. Slightly annoyed at how simple that was.
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@packlist_pen · 6mo ago
The foam pad also gives you a sit pad, a groundsheet for cooking and a backup if the inflatable punctures. Best value 200g in the pack, and it rides on the outside so it costs no volume.
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