campers with bad backs, What mattress?

Hi all, getting back into camping after long hiatus. Looking for what people sleep on in tents with bad backs. i have sciatica down my leg at times so need something supportive.

Ideas welcome!

 

Realistically, get a cot that fits in the tent, or change it up to hammock camping.

Bad backs suffer with air mattresses, and any kind of supportive foam doesnt fold down very compactly.

It's one of the reasons why I switched to a pop-up.
Now I have a tray lined with gym mat, a 5" medium mattress that barely fits when it closes, and a 4" folding mattress that takes up the entire floor when traveling. Awesome sleep at night, but it's a lot of foam I'm pulling behind my bumper.

I do have the old fashioned Coleman twin cot that has been used whenever I'm expected to visit overnight. It's surprisingly comfy.

 

Funny your comment on lugging around foam, its my thing too. thought about pop up and wondered if i could fit something custom in there, or if i got a regular camper would get a mattress made.

What companies and private parties want for a camper is just financial suicide, just disgusting.
So, i wondered what i could put in my tent that didnt make me wake up in pain?
i never really slept in a cot, but i hate sleeping without rolling easy. I suppose you do what you gotta do

 

Get a good cot and then get a piece of memory foam. Not regular foam but memory foam like used in Temperpedic beds. They sell pieces of memory foam that are made to go on top of regular beds, cut it to fit your cot and you’ll sleep like a baby. Memory foam is way different than regular foam,

 

Yeah we stay in a run down beach cottage and bring memory foam, turns a beat down lumpy mattress into something respectable.

Sounds like ill have to get used to a cot, and the wife and dog can cuddle up on an air matrress.

 

i get it, I gotta toss and turn too.

The thing about any kind of mattress is that it needs two things to work. It needs to be level and it needs a solid platform. That kind of rules out ground tents. Cots or padded cots are the best for ground. If you want to pay a premium, I do think they make double or queen cots so the whole family can sleep in.

Mattresses are great for trailers, if you go down that rabbit hole. I still say hammocks are the best sleep ever, but they do limit you on the scenery a bit (unless you bring your own trees).

Campers are insane right now, even the neglected and abused pop-ups. I still think that prices will start becoming more reasonable at the end of this season.

Double-stack mattress for the win.

 

I use a low profile cot, with 2.0” inflatable thermarest on top.

Let me try to find photos of a recent set up.

 

Exped Megamat blows plain memory foam out of the water - it’s inflatable memory foam so way more supportive. It’s spendy but pretty hard to beat when it comes to comfort.

 

Ditto. My house mattress wasn't cutting it and I used the megamat instead for a couple of months while mattress shopping.

 

Bad back here. Bought this recently, have yet to try it out but am going camping in a cpl weeks, for 5 nights. Reviews seem good. Hopefully it works out!

https://www.rei.com/product/203057/hest-foamy-sleeping-pad

Edit: I've survived with a Klymit blow up mattress pad for a little while, I just wanted something more plush/bigger in the back of my truck.

 

have you used it at all at home? Do you think it is thick enough to not feel imperfections in the ground?

 

I have laid on it briefly inside the house, I didn't feel the ground at all. I am going camping next week and can report back afterwards. That will be 5 nights with this thing in the back of my truck, with no extra cushioning underneath

 

Cot + foam pad + inflatable

 

I agree on the Cot. We have an old canvas/wood army cot that is super comfortable with a Sea-to-Summit 3" pad. They both pack up very compact. Sleeping in a hammock? No way. I tried it a couple times on a 2-week trek this summer. My back could not handle it, and mine is not even very bad, but I'm sensitive to sleeping "wrong", e.g. falling asleep on the couch pops a vertebra from old spinal injury out of place and wrecks me. Same with hammock. And this is coming from a guy who used to sleep hammock all the time until that injury.

 

im with you. I find no fault in those that have suggested and use a hammock, but for me anything that curves my back that way is a non starter. One thing i have found from having a bad back for close to 20 years, everyone is different injury wise, everyone responds to different treatment, and there is no one size fits all. Threads like this are all suggestions for what worked for them, some are universal, others are not

 

makes sense, bridges freeze before road right. good tip.

 

We're beginning to consider a ground tent and a two-person cot as an alternative to sleeping in the bed of the truck or to an RTT. Are there any good two-person cots out there with adjustable height? I saw that REI makes a 40" wide x 72" long Trailgate with adjustable height legs, but the legs aren't individually-adjustable for leveling.

 

After I retired to Idaho, I went to a nearby mattress store looking for Tempur-Pedic and they happened to have a twin, which the saleslady said the company wanted to remove from inventory, but numerous RV and camper owners also look for that size. I've been sleeping on it for more than ten years at home, and it's still good. I'm considering packing it along with the new North Face Homestead 4 tent (and footprint, both apparently discontinued by North Face, so it must have been good) this summer around the northwest states.

 

I've slept on nothing, air mattresses and foam mattresses with little trouble, but wifey was ready for an upgrade (and now that we've done so, I'm glad we did).

Picked up a couple of these:

$100 Zinus 6" Foam and Spring Mattress / CertiPUR-US Certified Foams / Mattress-in-a-Box, Narrow Twin, off white

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074Q6T8NS
(which had good reviews), and she's happy and I like 'em too.

If you have room to carry a mattress, I'd recommend the above.

 

Have tried several air mattresses...all have leaked to some extent overnight while sleeping...as well don't hold their shape well on the edges, so you're always sliding off.

I've gone to a cot and an air pad (actually holds air well)...sometimes I'll bring a foam pad in addition. Cot also gives you some floor space back, as you can tuck stuff under it.