reflections on sleeping outside

Last night I slept outside in my backyard. It was my 3rd attempt and 2nd successful attempt. Sleeping outside in the winter is a bit more touchy than in the summer. I sleep on some kind of eggshell type foam pad, which keeps the cold from the frozen ground where it rightly belongs (on the ground, and not on my skin). The pad is not very wide, so any part of my body that is touching the bottom of my tent (instead of the pad) immediately gets very cold. This requires a lot of fine-tuning to position my body just right so that no part of me is touching the ground. I have fairly wide shoulders so if I am laying on my back, at least one of my arms is going to be off the pad. I have found that sleeping on my side solves this problem pretty well.

The next problem is alternating between natural sleep cycles. When your body moves between sleep cycles it is usually not a problem: all you do is roll over in your warm, cozy bed and go right back to sleep. When you are sleeping outside you tend to awake more fully between sleep cycles because 1) it is cold, and 2) as you rolled over some part of your body probably is not on the pad anymore, and gets very cold.

Finally, the problem of background noise. We live somewhat close to a pretty busy street, and while the occasional, normal car is not really a problem, it is those idiots with obnoxiously loud exhausts or car stereos that really keep me awake (this is what prevented a successful attempt at sleeping out on a Friday night a few weeks ago). I think that traffic at 10 or 11 P.M. during the middle of the week is probably pretty light, so I tested that theory out last night and it seemed to hold up well. Although I recall waking up to some loud music in the middle of the night at some point, but was able to go right back to bed.

Regarding the coldness issue, last night it wasn't too bad. Based on historical weather data I was able to find, maybe it was around 20 or 25 ºF? Not too cold out (yet), certainly warm enough to allow me to hone my chops a little bit more before it gets really cold out. I slept in thin socks, Dr. Pepper pajama pants, my MMT sweatshirt, and no hat. My sleeping bag kept me nice and warm so no problem there.

Although a bit tired today, I thoroughly enjoy sleeping outside in the winter. I will try to make it a regular thing.