Sleeping wet in a sleeping bag.

[midwesterncrosshair]

I’ve heard the saying if you’re wet crawl on your sleeping bag and try to sleep and your body will dry your clothes off by the next morning. I haven’t had to put this to the test but is there temp point where you say I will not crawl in my sleeping bag wet because of the cold? Just wondering because I’m gonna go to sleep in a tent in Colorado here next weekend for the first rifle season. Looking like the whole week will be in the 20s and 30s at night. Does synthetic or down sleeping bag have an effect on the answer? Thanks for your time and experience for answering this question.

 

[Straight Arrow]

As long as your clothes are not sopping wet, it will work. Body heat causes evaporation. Clothing dampness evaporates and the moist air in the sleeping bag makes its way out. Depending on obvious temperature, wetness, and material factors, both down and synthetic bags demonstrate the characteristic "drying", however down bags are much more efficient.

Even in subzero ambient temperatures, efficient down sleeping bags may effectively dry damp clothing.

 

[KipCarson]

I have done it and it works. My clothes were fully synthetic along with my sleeping bag. I’ve heard other people say they can never get down dried out, but have no experience with that. Also when I’ve done it it was only with low temps of maybe 55 degrees at the coolest. And the best advice I would give is to have absolute top quality rain gear etc. and try to avoid getting wet in the first place, but we know that’s not always possible.

A few years back due to some poor decisions made by some hiking buddies I was with, we got stuck at 13,000 feet on the side of a mountain right at dark with a hellacious thunder storm moving in. I’ll skip the full story but I ended up soaking wet and it was hands-down the most miserable night of my life, but after a couple hours of shivering I did warm up enough and although I slept but little, by daylight I was dry. There were times in those first couple of hours that I was sure I would be dead from hypothermia by sunrise. It was truly miserable and the smartest thing at that point would have probably been to keep hiking way down into the trees and build a roaring fire. Did I mention it was hands-down the worst night of my life?

 

[Straight Arrow]

... can never get down dried out,

Probably not if it's sopping wet, but if damp, then yes. My wife & I backpacked seven days in the August Wyoming "drought" when it rained five of the days. We learned that backpack covers do not keep things dry ... so pack items in protective bags inside your pack. Our down sleeping bags were damp but dried during the night. Even though damp, they functioned okay during the chilly night and were much less damp in the morning.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Sleeping in wet stuff sucks. The only time I take wet clothing into a bag is if RH is low enough to pull some serious moisture out and I'm not remotely leaning on my bag rating, otherwise it will just hang up in your insulation and make you feel functionally cold. In most wet conditions I'd rather get into my sleeping bag without the wet stuff, sleep comfortably and warm, then put my wet or frozen action suit back on in the morning to get back after it. Just the way I prefer to do it.

The moisture in your clothes doesn't just disappear, it has to go somewhere. High humidity and limited tent air circulation put a major cap on how much moisture you can actually get rid of over a night in my experience. Totally different if it's a car camping situation; but backpacking in the wet, maintaining the ability of your sleep system to do its job is way more important than drying out clothes at night IMO.

 

[ChrisC]

I could be mistaken, but I believe there was a podcast (one of Randy's, I think) with the big game product developer from Sitka talking about just this when he trained the military...rewarming exercise, or something like that.

 

[JLS]

I could be mistaken, but I believe there was a podcast (one of Randy's, I think) with the big game product developer from Sitka talking about just this when he trained the military...rewarming exercise, or something like that.

Yes. As I recall it was with synthetic bags. No down.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Key to this discussion is the distinction between "wet" versus "damp" clothing.

 

[windymtnman]

I have done it and it works. My clothes were fully synthetic along with my sleeping bag. I’ve heard other people say they can never get down dried out, but have no experience with that. Also when I’ve done it it was only with low temps of maybe 55 degrees at the coolest. And the best advice I would give is to have absolute top quality rain gear etc. and try to avoid getting wet in the first place, but we know that’s not always possible.

A few years back due to some poor decisions made by some hiking buddies I was with, we got stuck at 13,000 feet on the side of a mountain right at dark with a hellacious thunder storm moving in. I’ll skip the full story but I ended up soaking wet and it was hands-down the most miserable night of my life, but after a couple hours of shivering I did warm up enough and although I slept but little, by daylight I was dry. There were times in those first couple of hours that I was sure I would be dead from hypothermia by sunrise. It was truly miserable and the smartest thing at that point would have probably been to keep hiking way down into the trees and build a roaring fire. Did I mention it was hands-down the worst night of my life?

I don't have any experience with down needing to be dried out, but I know that I bought a new down bag a year ago, and the mfg. claims that now a lot of the goose down is treated to be moisture resistant, so it doesn't get wet and fail to insulate anymore. So, not sure how accurate that really is?

 

[David58]

I started backpacking at about 14 years old in Tennessee. Green, humid, wet Tennessee. Everything, I mean EVERYTHING, went into plastic bags, garbage bags. Sleeping bag was in a garbage bag inside of the stuff sack, clothes in the pack were in a garbage bag, etc etc etc. The assumption was it would be wet, the goal was to sleep dry. Backpacked while getting dumped on by tropical storms (downgraded from hurricanes), soaked to the skin but our gear was dry.

 

[brownbear932008]

I spent a couple of wet days in one last year in upper 30 temps and it sucked is about all I can say. Happen to forget my ground barrier also in the floorless. Almost got up at 2am the second night and start the walk out and toughed it out. Killed a nice buck that morning just after daylight and it made it all worth it.
To add to this I couldn't seem to get my stuff dry but I spent almost 3 days in rain,snow, and sleet until the last day and we keep high humidity here in VA. it seems that could make things harder to dry out I assume?

 

[338win]

Soaked bag and clothes on a sheep hunt. All synthetic, woke up my clothes were "dry" as was the bag area immediately around me. It sucks but it works. Why the mil uses synthetic.

 

[SilverDollars]

Howdy. Can we all say hot tent? A few years ago my hunting partner was gathering wood as I was preparing dinner in my Seek Outside Tipi. He came back with a large load of wood and said he was soaking wet. I asked him if he fell into the stream below our tent. He said no, and that he had forgotten to shed his outer layers and he got over heated and was soaked, I mean dripping wet to the core. He was a big sweaty type man. I told him to eat up, shed the wet clothes, hang them up in the tent and keep the fire going in the stove until they dried. I for one, was rolling over and going to sleep. Well in the morning we woke up to hunt. He said his clothes dried quickly and he got a good night's sleep. He really learned a valuable lesson about the purpose of layering one's clothes. A hot tent has many advantages and this is one valuable advantage!

 

[Pucky Freak]

I have been on a handful of backpacking trips where it’s rained every day, 5-6 days in a row. Eventually almost everything gets damp no matter how meticulous you are. Nothing dries out in 100% humidity. So my damp sleep mat, damp hammock, damp down bag, damp clothes, damp pack, etc, I actually was reasonably comfortable to sleep in. The only way out of that hole was a bright sunny day to finally air everything out, or hit the truck at the end of the trip. I always keep a double ziplock emergency set of clothes that never get used unless it’s a life or death situation, plus space blanket (used x1, they work). As mentioned above, the difference between wet and soaked is huge…never let your stuff get soaked. If my down bag got soaked I’d probably try to hike out, even if it was an all night march, 15 miles, etc.

 

[Cheesehead]

Howdy. Can we all say hot tent? A few years ago my hunting partner was gathering wood as I was preparing dinner in my Seek Outside Tipi. He came back with a large load of wood and said he was soaking wet. I asked him if he fell into the stream below our tent. He said no, and that he had forgotten to shed his outer layers and he got over heated and was soaked, I mean dripping wet to the core. He was a big sweaty type man. I told him to eat up, shred the wet clothes, hang them up in the tent and keep the fire going in the stove until they dried. I for one, was rolling over and going to sleep. Well in the morning we woke up to hunt. He said his clothes dried quickly and he got a good night's sleep. He really learned a valuable lesson about the purpose of layering one's clothes. A hot tent has many advantages and this is one valuable advantage!

+1

 

[Gerald Martin]

Seems to me that shedding wet clothes and sleeping dry and then donning wet clothes again in the morning is a lot better plan than spending a miserable night.

That’s what great big bomb fires are made for standing beside while you have your morning coffee.

 

[Falcon75]

I could be mistaken, but I believe there was a podcast (one of Randy's, I think) with the big game product developer from Sitka talking about just this when he trained the military...rewarming exercise, or something like that.

Brian Call also did one with gritty podcast. I saw it on YouTube. Sounds like it socks but you will get dry o. The other side. One thing to add is they ate something warm before getting in bags.

 

[WYWINCHESTER]

Sleeping in a wet Wiggy's

 

[track1]

Great video from Stone glacier

 

[coleslaw]

Might work with down bags if the down has a decent amount of hydrophobic coating I would think.
One trick I learned in the army was to wrap wet clothing inside our Gore-Tex jackets and put those inside our sleeping bags with us (along with water, boots, socks... everything else we would be wearing the next day to keep it all warm and from freezing).
The action of the Gore-Tex paired with body heat would work together to dry out damp clothes and socks.