Exercise Before Bed to Keep Warm on the Hike
Sleeping bags are designed to trap the heat generated by your body while you sleep to keep you warm. If you’re resting in a cool place and the bag itself isn’t quite cutting, you can keep warm the old-fashioned way – by doing a little exercise before bed.
As suggested in this Trail Sherpa article , which details the thermal insulation properties of sleeping bags, you can heat up for hours simply by doing a few jumps:
“Do your best to warm your body before you get into your bag. Twenty jumps before you jump into the bag can keep you warm for hours longer because your body will be better at warming the air in the bag. “
If you are exercising and they immediately go into your sleeping bag, it can warm the air in it and save you a little more frying hours after the excess heat from your exercise has already dissipated. This means that you should obviously zip up the bag as tight as possible to keep the air warm. Ideally, you should also have a sleeping mat to keep warmth from going into the ground. This may be well known to seasoned tourists, but next time I’ll definitely try a little workout before bed.