Sleep mat for a painful back

[Woody girl]

Toddy that sounds like a cheap and ingenious idea. I'm always looking at the possibility of going off grid so I try to make things aimed towards that. If my rent rates electric and water keeps going up it may well happen! I want to make a wind turbine one day . I have a plan with an old bike wheel from an electric pushbike that has a hub motor. We'll see if it ever happens. I don't quite know how to make it work yet but I'm sure it can be done. Free leccy!

 

[Barney Rubble]

Apols for the late response, but in terms of your original question. The earlier advice about shaping the sand to conform to your preferred sleeping position sounds perfect. In addition, I'd heartily recommend you look at the Exped Downmat Lite. It's by far the most comfortable sleeping mat that I've ever used and has transformed my views on ground dwelling as I can now sleep comfortably on my side.

The exped mat can be a bit pricey (google search currently prices it at around £70, but keep an eye on it as the price does fluctuate massively in the sales (I got mine for £50). In my opinion it ticks all the right boxes; it's comfortable (5cm thick), warm through all four seasons, lightweight (approx 500g) and packs down very small indeed (equivalent size to a Nalgene bottle). Sometimes, if I'm glamping it up a bit I'll also take a foam mat to put underneath it and give me some added piece of mind about puncturing it!

 

[Woody girl]

Wow this is a realy hard choice! I spent into the very late early hours comparing all the details of each mat and I think I'm going for the alpkit dumo.
They have all been excellent suggestions and it's been a very difficult choice as each mat had things going for it.
The reasons for my choice are as follows.
Price. At my limitations but under by a few pence.
Square end. I move a lot and my feet tend to fall off the tapered mat.
Built in pump. Wow a revelation !
RIght depth. I need a min of 9cm.
Weight. Same weight as my thickest mat. So I save a lot of weight by not taking the other two.
Pack size. Much smaller pack size than any mat I own. Fits in bag rather than having to be strapped to the outside.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I'd have struggled to find this information on my own. Ringing local dealers, they have all recommended mats that would not have realy been suitable and I would have wasted money. The last mat I bought being a case in point.
Let's hope this is my ultimate mat.
By the way I know about digging the hip pit and have done it many times. This is a hard rocky pebbly environment so I needed the padding against the stones as much as anything. Thanks again . Excellent job folks. I'll let you know how the trip goes. It's not for a month or so yet so don't worry if it all goes quiet for a while.

 

[Janne]

We will try not to worry if we do not hear from you.
Be careful, we do not want to read in Daily Fail that a female body was found, smothered by her deflated mattress.....

 

[Woody girl]

More like a female body was found poisoned by her abysmal cooking of things she should never have tried to cook. Lol

 

[GuestD]

Can anyone fellow sufferers recommend a suitable mat that is not wildly expensive?. I need padding rather than insulation

I regularly use a lightweight sack stuffed with heather. Obviously depends on the local vegetation. This was used by drovers and travellers to get a comfortable nights sleep without carrying any weight.

 

[Woody girl]

In my girls brigade days we used straw stuffed sacks. Very comfy as long as they were plumped up each night and they smelled wonderful.

 

[Toddy]

I'm with Deekin on it; heather is wonderful stuff for a mattress. It's almost springy beneath you. It used to be used to provide the padding in the old set in beds when folks couldn't afford the 'feather bed'...which was really just a feather stuffed mattress.

M

 

[Woody girl]

Yes Heather is a lovely bed. Living where I live Heather is tick heaven so I tend to avoid it.

 

[Erbswurst]

A cheap option for summer times could be a non insulated trekking air mattress.
Decathlon offers a yellow one and a short grey one which is to short for me.

The yellow one is OK. I use it on camping grounds in France, where often are little stones on the place, because that's the naturel ground.

But I think for UK it is better to buy an insulated mattress, because you can use it round the year.

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

Ere! I saw a chap assemble a very cool camp bed on a youtube lavuu ... lavvu... poncho tent video. These beds are only around £20. It was assembled from lightweight Alooominumm poles and had a nylon laying on bit.

For a bad back, stability is often a good thing rather than a squishy mattress, so may be worth looking at.


“In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees”

 

[Toddy]

Yes Heather is a lovely bed. Living where I live Heather is tick heaven so I tend to avoid it.

Isn't it strange ? in all the years I camped, hiked, etc., I have had less ticks than I have fingers on my hand. Yet now, the damned things are everywhere. As a child I played on a hill farm, in a frock, as wee girls did back then. I mind being hauled back out from the bracken and heather by the old sheep dog who'd become responsible for the children's safety on the steading. She rounded us up like sheep, and pulled me by the knot of the bow at the back of my dress.....and I never, ever got a tick there. Not once, even though I was bare legged, with bare arms too.
My Dad lived wild on Rannoch Moor for three years in the 1930's, and he said he never got a tick or a ked, but he did get clegs and midgies.

Now the ticks are everywhere.
I know we no longer have the organophosphate sheep dips, but surely that alone cannot explain the enormous rise in the numbers of ticks ?

I'm told that you want guinea fowl if there are ticks around. They'll eat them and in great numbers too.
Maybe we need to convince all those sporting estates to breed them instead of the pheasants.......

M

 

[Janne]

I feel the tick population has increased potentially, do not know why.
Re bed: before I got more ’environmrnt frirndly / leave no trace, I used to cut down lots of Pine branches if I knew I would spend a few days in the same place. Not only insulating, but really springy and also fragrant.

 

[Woody girl]

I spent a lot of my childhood in the new forest, alice holt forest, fields and woods. Never even heard the word tick unless it was to do with school work!

 

[petrochemicals]

Isn't it strange ? in all the years I camped, hiked, etc., I have had less ticks than I have fingers on my hand. Yet now, the damned things are everywhere. As a child I played on a hill farm, in a frock, as wee girls did back then. I mind being hauled back out from the bracken and heather by the old sheep dog who'd become responsible for the children's safety on the steading. She rounded us up like sheep, and pulled me by the knot of the bow at the back of my dress.....and I never, ever got a tick there. Not once, even though I was bare legged, with bare arms too.
My Dad lived wild on Rannoch Moor for three years in the 1930's, and he said he never got a tick or a ked, but he did get clegs and midgies.

Now the ticks are everywhere.
I know we no longer have the organophosphate sheep dips, but surely that alone cannot explain the enormous rise in the numbers of ticks ?

I'm told that you want guinea fowl if there are ticks around. They'll eat them and in great numbers too.
Maybe we need to convince all those sporting estates to breed them instead of the pheasants.......

M

It's because you are not very attractive. by that I mean the most tasty things to insects seems to be unwashed persons with a certain scent, sort of like a moose.

 

[Toddy]

Ah, I ought to have been clearer; none of us got ticks. My husband is older than I am, and he has wandered more of the land than I ever have and yet he too is finding this sudden surge in tick numbers surprising. He didn't get bitten either, neither did my brothers, my wider family or friends. It's as though there weren't so many ticks, now suddenly they're everywhere.

Why ?

 

[Erbswurst]

Weather perhaps? Missing enemies?
To much cats perhaps, less birds?
Faults in the agriculture?

It doesn't matter, if you aren't washed.
Even if I am not washed, they do not attack me. I don't use deodorant, but I guess, it's my blood, my smell.

Some people have never problems, others are very heavily attacked.

Avoid places where wild animals are living, sleeping, and theyr ways!

If possible wear long trousers and put the trousers in the high boots, especially if you have to walk through high grass.

To drink some drops of Syzygium aromaticum (clove) oil every morning seems to help.
(For dogs too.)

But a tick card from the pharmacy now a days belongs in every ruck sack or wallet of every hiker.

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

It's because you are not very attractive. by that I mean the most tasty things to insects seems to be unwashed persons with a certain scent, sort of like a moose.

I shall relay that to wosserface-herindoors from a considerable distance, as if anyone’s going to get bitten by anything, they’ll choose her over me any day...... because she smells like a Moose!

Braced for impact,

Darryl of Su.....

 

[Woody girl]

Moose musk is extremely attractive to other moose. Is that why she likes you so much?

 

[Woody girl]

Well the mat was ordered by phone this afternoon . Lovely helpful young lady took my order. Can try it out at home to see if it's suitable and if not free returns and refund. 3 yrs warranty. Roll on delivery day (Wednesday ).