High Sierra Topix

1. A good warm inflatable pad.
2. An inflatable pillow.
3. EE Revelation quilt
4 10mg Zolpidem (ambien) Which I only use in the back country or the occasional business trip. It's a low dose and wears off after 6-7 hours.

I sleep great and am not groggy in the morning.

My issue is staying asleep vs. falling asleep. What I do is:
1. Use a large rectangular bag and air mat to enable Falcon position and rotisserie action.
2. Where possible, camp where there is at least a bit of water sound.
3. Wear earplugs when there are other campers nearby or other sources of noise other than wind and water.
4. Have an open view to the sky, weather permitting, so I can enjoy star-gazing in the middle of the night when I can't get back to sleep.
5. Some years back I would take a tryptophan tablet before bed, but I haven't done that in a while.
6. Use a quiet tent that doesn't make a ruckus in the wind.

Except for a couple of times in the last 40+ years, I’ve always slept great when backpacking or car camping. I may wake up two or three times in the middle of the night, but I listen to the sounds of a creek and wind in the trees and am soon back asleep. I use a cheap Ridgerest sleeping pad and for a pillow, an extra t-shirt stuffed with extra clothes-nothing fancy I’m with Marksor on the sativa.

maverick wrote:

Similar here but prefer a good Sativa instead.

Was under the impression that a Sativa would keep you alert and social, unless your talking a hybrid, Sativa dominant.

Trust me--sativa does not make mark either social or alert--anytime of the day.

Trust me--sativa does not make mark either social or alert--anytime of the day.

Don't think they have developed a strain strong enough for that, yet!

Got your "social or alert" scenario right here!
BTW, How do you think I've put up hiking with the OldRanger for all these years?

No drugs of any kind, unless I have a particular ache or pain.
A few minutes of mindfulness and quiet unwinding, gathering my thoughts for the day.

No trouble falling asleep. Although I wake up a dozen times or so to turn to the other side when I get uncomfortable on my NeoAir XLite pad.

I used to never really sleep very well using a closed cell foam sleeping pad on all my climbs and backpacking trips. I upgraded to the Thermarest self inflating pad to really not much improvement. I started getting my best sleep once I discovered the inflatable pads starting first with a Pacific Outdoors then after that the first Thermarest Neo Air. I now use a Thermarest Xtherm and sleep better and warmer. Every night I use 3 mg of melatonin and on those days when I feel like the trail dust and campfire smoke has me stuffed up I will take 1 Benadryl which will clear me up and also help me sleep. I also found on those nights when I'm having a hard time with sleeping because of the altitude 1 Tylenol pm with a regular Tylenol usually helps me sleep without the medicine head feeling in the morning. If I take the Tylenol pm I will not take the Benadryl.
Also, using a Breath Right nasal strip every night helps my sleep because I'm breathing through my nose and not waking up with my mouth numb and feeling like the floor of Death Valley....

I know going into a trip that I'm not going to sleep great, but I've found the key for me is to spend the day being as active as possible. The way I backpack I don't usually make it to my camp spot until the very end of the day, and so by the time I set up camp and all that jazz, I'm already pretty tired. If I do arrive at my destination early, I'll explore the area religiously until it gets dark out. Either way, I want to be physically exhausted before crawling into my sleeping bag. Additionally I'll fight off sleep for as long as I can by staring at the stars until I can't hold my eyes open any longer. I never take any pills when backpacking, or when not backpacking for that matter, but I'll smoke a bowl before going to bed. I'm not sure if this helps or not. And while I never bring alcohol out there with me, if I'm hiking with someone that does, I'll have a pull or two of whiskey before sleeping, and that definitely helps.