Why do I need a sleeping mat for outdoor camping?

For outdoor camping, sleeping mats are the most important partner to isolate the cold earth. Choosing a sleeping mat suitable for your activities is as important as choosing a tent or sleeping bag.

When you first enter the outdoors and purchase equipment, you always attach great importance to tents and sleeping bags, but often overlook sleeping mats. It’s no wonder:

The sleeping bag I bring is thick enough, why can’t I just sleep on the ground?

There are four ways to lose heat from the human body: evaporation, convection, conduction, and radiation. Among them, conduction and convection dissipate the most heat, while lying down while sleeping, the heat loss from conduction accounts for the bulk.

If you sleep directly on the ground outdoors, the result is that no matter how thick a sleeping bag is wrapped, you will feel cold, because the ground is constantly sucking your heat away. There is a large loss of heat, ranging from weak action on the second day to direct loss of temperature at night.

Sleeping mats (commonly known as "moisture-proof mats" by domestic mountain friends) have become indispensable equipment for outdoor activities in the sense of isolating the cold earth. Compared with the beds at home, they are lighter in weight and easy to pack, making them suitable for outdoor people.

Sleeping mats, tents, and sleeping bags form an indispensable three-piece set of sleep systems.