The Most Comfortable Sleeping Pads

Having a good sleeping pad can make or break any trip. There are few things worse than waking up sore after a nights sleep because of sleeping on a crappy sleeping pad. Actually, the only thing worse than that is waking up sore because of your sleeping pad is when its on the first day of your through hike of the Appalachian Trail. Do yourself a favor and spend the money on a quality sleeping pad. Those few extra dollars will make all the difference in your comfort.

It used to be that you didn’t really have a lot of options when it came to sleeping pads. For a long time those standard blue foam style sleeping pads were accepted as the standard in comfort and protection. As time progressed we were introduced to the Threm-a-Rest style sleeping pads. These types of inflatable sleeping pads really raised the bar for comfort, packability, and protection in the sleeping pad industry.

More recently these inflatable sleeping pads companies have started to create sleeping pads specific to certian types of outdoor activities versus create a catch all multipurpose sleeping pad. For example, today you can get a sleeping pad that only reaches from your shoulder to just past your hip. This is made specifically for backpackers where weight and space is an issue. If you do a lot of car camping though, you can opt for a larger and padded sleeping pad for maximum comfort.

Here are some of our favorite sleeping pads:

Choosing the right sleeping pad for you all boils down to your personal preferences and your favorite outdoor activities. If you do a little bit of everything, you will probably want a lightwieght multipurpose sleeping pad. But if you do mostly car camping or some other form of camping where space isn’t a big deal, you’ll probably want to spring for the more padded and comfortable sleeping pads.