The Most Comfortable Sleeping Pads
A good pad can make or break a trip, and the post was right that this matters more than people expect. What was not clear in 2009 is that comfort and warmth are two separate specifications and you should shop for both.
Warmth is R-value, and it is now comparable. Since 2020 there is a single standardised test, so R-values from different brands can be compared directly, which was not true when this was written. Roughly: R2 for summer, R3 to R4 for three-season, R5 and up for snow. Most cold nights are cold from underneath, because the ground conducts heat away far faster than air does.
Comfort is thickness, width and baffle shape. Three inches of loft is the point at which side sleepers stop noticing the ground. And width is the most underrated dimension: the standard pad is 51cm and most people's elbows are not. If you sleep badly on a pad, a wide one fixes it more often than a thicker one does.
The three types: closed-cell foam, which is cheap, indestructible and bulky; self-inflating foam-and-air, which is comfortable and heavy and ideal for car camping; and air pads, which are the best comfort-to-weight and can puncture.
One rule that protects an expensive pad: inflate it with a pump sack, not your lungs. Breath moisture inside a pad freezes in winter, grows mould year round, and in a down-filled pad destroys the insulation permanently. Every insulated inflatable now ships with a pump sack for this reason and most people ignore it.
And carry the patch kit. A pad that fails at 2am on a cold night is the most miserable equipment failure in camping.
Part of the guide to sleeping bags and pads.