this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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The extreme rating keeps you alive, barely.
Any decent sleeping bag will also have another rating, often called "comfort". This rating should be low enough to cover the lowest temperature you're going to use it for, but only if you're male and the bag's size fits you well.
Women (on average) and people who are smaller will need an even lower temperature rating.
Also, the rating assumes you're using a very well-insulated sleeping mat underneath, the bag is new, and completely dry.
So factor in some safety margin.
A bag with an extreme rating of 20 will definitely not be warm enough to sleep well at a temperature of 32.
I guess I'll have put something over or inside it for cold nights.
Get a sleeping bag liner. A flannel one will cost about $30 and boost the warmth of your sleeping bag considerably IF you need it.
Pro tip: If you are cold in your bag when you shouldn’t be it probably means you got too hot, started sweating, and now your cold because of evaporation. It took me YEARS to figure that out. I now leave my bag unzipped half way down so I don’t build up moisture inside and that keeps me from getting cold. I’ve comfortably slept in my bag many time in air temperature well below freezing since figuring that out.
Yes, I'm looking into sleeping bag liners to see what I like. But, I didn't know about the unzipping of the zipper. Thank you for the tip.