If you’re an adventurer with a backpacking sleep system minus a camping pillow, this article is for you. Whether you’re sleeping in a tent or under the stars, bringing one along is of utmost importance.
Why, you ask? We have listed the top 3 reasons below:
It Improves Quality of Sleep
No matter how strongly you romanticize the concept, camping isn’t supposed to be comfortable. Sleeping outdoors has its pros and cons. The terrain could be rocky and damp. The weather could be too hot or too cold. It’s all fun until it’s time to hit the bed.
Let’s be honest, a sleeping pad cannot replicate your bed at home. You could be tossing and turning on it all night long. On the other hand, a sleeping bag doesn’t allow for free movement. However, it all gets better with a camping pillow.
It will gently cradle your head and help you get a good night’s sleep in a comfortable position. Today there are a variety of pillows available for different sleeping positions. All you need to do is do some research before buying one.
It Aligns the Neck and Spine Optimally
Optimally aligning the neck and the spine is the ultimate goal of every pillow out there. This becomes even more important when you go camping because you never know where you’d end up preparing for bed.
Sleeping on a camping pillow improves your posture and keeps the neck and spine aligned to a great degree. This, in turn, relieves stress and reduces neck and back pain. Carrying a camping pillow is of utmost importance, especially if you are a side or back sleeper.
After all, you don’t want to wake up with a nasty body ache or a stiff neck. Remember, a well-rested body is best prepared for adventures. Leave your circadian rhythm undisturbed and save that much-needed energy by sleeping on a camping pillow.
It is Lightweight, Compact, and Easy to Clean
If you’re thinking of ditching camping pillows for your at-home pillows, think again. The former has been designed to be lightweight and compact. It is either inflatable or compressible and won’t take much space in your backpack.
At-home pillows, on the other hand, don’t quite cut it when it comes to camping. The cons outweigh the pros. Although comfortable, they are impracticable because they fail miserably at portability and even durability, especially under extreme weather conditions.
On that account, you need a camping pillow that is purpose-built for backpacking. Yes, it would add a few ounces of extra weight. But if it improves the quality of your sleep, why not?.
Even leading pillow review sites such as PillowHunters believe camping pillows are worth the weight and a key to sleeping as comfortably outdoors as indoors.
Furthermore, camping is a lot about dust, dirt, rain, mud, and grime. Also, your pillow must survive your sweat, face cream, hair oil and drool! Your regular pillow exposed to all these conditions would be super difficult to clean and might just degrade.
On the other hand, most pillows meant for campers are durable, weather-proof, and machine-washable. Some even come with removable covers so when you dirty them, you can simply pull out and toss them into the washing machine.
Can you think of any other advantage?
