[pct-l] Sleeping gear recommendations

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I'm with Steele-Eye on wanting sleeping gear that is worry-free. I'm  
also female and 46. I sleep just fine on K-mart blue foam velcroed to  
a 6-panel chunk of Z-rest, despite having hips.

I used to suffer because of my hips and than I realized if I just  
moved my hips a certain way, they were out of the way and I could  
sleep fine. I also sleep on my back a lot. "But I'm a side-sleeper,"  
I can hear somebody saying. Yeah, I've been a side sleeper, a stomach  
sleeper and a back sleeper throughout my life. It changes. Nothing is  
stuck one way. We are human animals and our natural sleep as  
creatures of the earth isn't 2-feet of toxic memory foam.

Anyway, after my hike, I found it hard to sleep on a mattress with a  
pillow. It took weeks to get used to it. It seems like a must-have  
that you have to have this or that to sleep, but it's illusion. You  
just need to be sleepy, warm and feel safe. It takes a lot less to  
give you this than it seems at first.

I'm sure you don't need giant gaps between the pads to make the  
accordion folds. It would likely be less of a gap than you would ever  
notice.
On Apr 18, 2011, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Brandon wrote:
>>
> One concern: If I space the pads a bit before taping them together,  
> won't I
> feel the gaps when I sleep on it?
>>
>
> It's not just Steel-Eye's eye that's made of steel.  Don't be  
> asking a guy
> who sleeps on duct-taped-together strips of closed-cell foam for  
> comfort
> advice.  :-)
>
> Eric