The 7 Best Sleeping Bags of 2023 | Reviews by Wirecutter

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The 7 Best Sleeping Bags of 2023 | Reviews by Wirecutter

The adage “you get what you pay for” is as true today as ever, but with a few exceptions—one being sleeping bags.

You simply don’t need to overpay to get a bag that’s comfortable and functional, whether for car camping, backpacking, or camping with kids.

After performing more than 110 hours of research over 3 years, considering 250 models, and dragging 41 bags through the wilds of California, Hawaii, and Colorado, we think the REI Co-op Siesta Hooded 20 Sleeping Bag is the best for basic camping.

We do have pricier options (the Montbell Down Hugger 650 #1 and the Marmot Women’s Teton) that would be good crossover bags for anyone planning to do some backpacking as well as cool-weather car camping, as well as a suggestion for backpackers who prefer to sleep on their sides.

In addition, we have comfortable down bags (the Feathered Friends Swallow YF 30 Sleeping Bag and the Feathered Friends Egret YF 20 Women's Sleeping Bag) for multiday backpacking trips, and a bag for couples who’d like to sleep together.

The reasonably priced, recycled poly-fill Siesta 20 is great if you need a bag that you’ll use primarily for car camping—it’s warm, comfortable, moisture resistant, easy to clean, and easy to stuff away.

The REI Co-op Siesta Hooded 20 is as much sleeping bag as anyone could want for basic car camping, and it costs almost a third the price of more specialized backpacking options. It is light, comfortable, and adjustable, and comes in two sizes: regular and long, as well as a single version and a double version. The Siesta 20, which has synthetic insulation, is plenty warm for three-season camping (it’s rated to 20 °F—that is, below freezing) but still packs into a cylindrical stuff sack, about 13 inches by 11 inches, that won’t take up much room in the trunk of your car—a pertinent detail for large families. Though the bag is hooded, it’s more akin to bunching a pillow around your head rather than a traditional mummy bag hood. Additionally, the polyester exterior is water resistant, and REI’s return policy is generous. In 2023, REI updated the Siesta to include 98% recycled insulation fill.

Affordable for a down-filled bag, the Montbell has diagonal baffles that make it feel roomier than most mummy-style options, plus it comes with a lifetime warranty. It’s best for people with broad shoulders and narrower hips.

Better for more narrow-bodied people who sleep cold, the Teton is a warm bag (it’s rated to 15 °F) that’s made with silky-soft fabric and filled with well-lofted, water-resistant down. Marmot offers a lifetime warranty.

If you already know you want to work a lot of backpacking into your camping habits, you’ll need a lighter, more stuffable bag than the REI Co-op Siesta 20, and we think the unisex Montbell Down Hugger is the best choice for people with broad shoulders and narrower hips who tend to get hot at night, as well as for people who move a lot in their sleep. It’s rare to find a comfortable down bag that costs less than $400, yet the Down Hugger was softer and had more loft than some bags that cost $100 more. The bag’s shape and diagonal baffles made it feel far roomier and more accommodating than most of the traditional mummy bags we tested. We didn’t notice any fraying during our testing period, either—but should you experience any manufacturing defect, the bag is backed by Montbell’s lifetime warranty. (The warranty does not cover normal wear and tear; Montbell does offer repairs for which the company will charge “a reasonable rate.”)

Although it’s billed as a women’s bag, the Marmot Women’s Teton is a good fit for any narrow-bodied person who gets cold at night. It’s warmer and slimmer than the Montbell Down Hugger, but it’s also among the softest, warmest bags we tested: The fluffy insulation feels plush and almost overstuffed; it swaddles you while you sleep. The Teton also has thoughtful features, like a pocket within the bag to store electronics, and (new in the 2022 redesign) a compression zipper in the footbox that you can unzip to create more room. It is EN rated to 15 °F—and after many cold nights of sleeping under the stars, our testers found that number to be accurate. It’s worth noting, however, that this is a much warmer bag than many of the others we tested; at times it was too warm. A lifetime warranty covers manufacturer’s defects but not normal wear and tear.

Though intended for side-sleepers, the design of this backpacking bag (which is insulated with a combination of down and synthetic fill) works well for anyone who tosses and turns while they sleep.

Let’s face it, most people toss and turn when they’re sleeping outside. We think the Big Agnes Sidewinder SL 20° is a great bag for backpackers who move around while they’re sleeping in a tent, including side-sleepers. The shape of the shell is one factor: It’s cut more widely in the middle than your average mummy bag. We were able to move between every possible position you might want to lie in with this bag—on our side, stomach, back, and even in the fetal position. While we were moving around inside, the bag never felt constrictive. And in addition to the bag’s “main” down insulation, the hip areas have an additional layer of synthetic fill, which compresses less than down does. Anyone who moves in their sleep has probably woken up tangled in their mummy bag, unable to find the side zipper. Well, no matter how much we moved around, we could always find the zipper that runs down the front and center of this bag. Plus, the Sidewinder has a pillow sleeve behind the hood that holds a pillow beneath your head as you find that comfortable position on your sleeping pad. Big Agnes offers a limited warranty against manufacturing or material defects; it does not cover wear and tear.

Cut wider for backpackers who sleep hot, this pricey bag is stuffed with lightweight down insulation, made in America, and backed by a solid warranty.

The Egret 20 has all the advantages of the Swallow 30—lightweight down fill, a solid warranty, and it’s US-made—but with a narrower cut and more insulation for people who get cold at night.

May be out of stock

The lightweight Swallow YF 30 Sleeping Bag is a solid choice for people who bring a sleeping bag with them often while hiking or traveling. This bag is simple and unadorned yet filled with top-quality down. It is rated to 30 °F and offers a looser fit for wide bodies, making it a good buy for larger people or people who sleep hot. It’s not an ultralight bag, but its 900-plus fill-power goose down (more about fill power later, but in short, this means the bag is very lofty and therefore both lightweight and warm) is a rare find for under $500 and makes it light enough to carry easily on long-distance trips. All Feathered Friends products come with a lifetime guarantee (which doesn’t cover regular wear and tear) and are made with certified RDS down.

Like the Swallow, the Feathered Friends Egret YF 20 is a high-end bag that is, nonetheless, a rare find for its price. Thoughtfully constructed with the same 900-plus fill-power down), the Egret is made with top-quality materials resulting in a simple, proven design that works in all conditions. It is billed as a women’s bag, but we think the bag’s extra insulation (it’s rated to 20 °F) makes it a good fit for anyone who sleeps cold, as long as they’re not taller than 5-foot-9. (The bag comes in two sizes: small and medium.) As with the Swallow, the Egret is backed by Feathered Friends’s lifetime warranty.

The synthetic-fill Big Agnes Dream Island is the most comfortable double bag for car-camping couples, thanks to a built-in sleeping-pad sleeve, which prevents midnight misalignments.

The Big Agnes Dream Island is spacious, warm, and comfortable, with a built-in sleeping-pad sleeve that solves a problem it had never occurred to us to try to solve: the annoyance of bag and pad getting misaligned in the middle of the night. The pad, which you have to buy separately, replaces the synthetic polyester insulation on the bottom half of the bag, making the Big Agnes, which is rated to 15 °F, extra warm relative to its packed size. Since there is no insulation on the bottom of the Dream Island, it really needs to be paired with the sleeping pad to work. The sleeve fits one of Big Agnes’s 50-by-78-inch double air mattresses (such as the Hinman) or two standard 25-by-78-inch pads. Many companies make car-camping pads with these larger-than-average dimensions, and any of them will fit the Dream Island just fine. Big Agnes offers a limited warranty against manufacturing or material defects; it does not cover wear and tear.

Though intended for side-sleepers, the design of this backpacking bag (which is insulated with a combination of down and synthetic fill) works well for anyone who tosses and turns while they sleep.

Cut wider for backpackers who sleep hot, this pricey bag is stuffed with lightweight down insulation, made in America, and backed by a solid warranty.

The Egret 20 has all the advantages of the Swallow 30—lightweight down fill, a solid warranty, and it’s US-made—but with a narrower cut and more insulation for people who get cold at night.

May be out of stock

The synthetic-fill Big Agnes Dream Island is the most comfortable double bag for car-camping couples, thanks to a built-in sleeping-pad sleeve, which prevents midnight misalignments.

Claire Wilcox, who is currently updating the car-camping and double-wide sleeping bag section of this guide for 2023, has logged over 600 hours on road trips throughout the United States. She and her sleeping bag have posted up in tents, tarps, cars, motels, en plein air and in the occasional closet. Now that she lives on O‘ahu, she spends more time backpacking inter-island and trying to dial in the coziest and lightest couples sleep system possible. When she’s not writing or in the ocean somewhere, she teaches sophomore English.

Sam Schild, who tested a new crop of backpacking sleeping bags in 2022 for this guide, has backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, the Colorado Trail (three times), and the Grand Enchantment Trail. He’s also ridden his bike across the United States, across Colorado on the Colorado Trail, and all over the American Southwest. On all these adventures, he’s carried a sleeping bag to cuddle up in at night. When he’s not out on a human-powered adventure, you can find him writing about the outdoors at a coffee shop somewhere in Denver, Colorado. Sam’s work builds upon earlier research and testing done by Liz Thomas. She once held the women’s unassisted speed record on the Appalachian Trail. She is also the instructor of Backpacker magazine’s online Thru-Hiking 101 class and the author of the National Outdoor Book Award-winning Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-Hike.

Kit Dillon, who tested car-camping sleeping bags for this guide, has been reviewing gear for Wirecutter since 2014, writing about everything from backpacks and luggage to cooking gear, road-trip gear and car-camping tents. He’s also written for Popular Science, The Awl, The Metro, The Observer, and Fortune. He also lived in a tent in Hawaii for seven months and used a sleeping bag as a blanket most of that time.

Wirecutter senior editor Kalee Thompson, who tested car-camping bags for couples for this guide, has evaluated gear for Wired, Popular Science, and National Geographic Adventure, where she was a senior editor. A longtime hiker and camper, she embraced the transition from backpacking to car camping—which included buying a double bag—after her first son was born.

Car camping is the first experience many people have with sleeping bags and tents, so we started our testing there. Belly- and side-sleepers will especially enjoy the spaciousness of the rectangular design of our top pick, the REI Co-op Siesta Hooded 20. This car-camping sleeping bag is as close as you can get to tucking into your own bed outdoors without bringing a set of sheets, blankets, and your mattress to a campsite. (We do, however, recommend combining all of our picks with a good sleeping pad. In fact, when you’re sleeping in a tent on the ground, it’s arguably more important to have an appropriately rated, quality sleeping pad underneath you–since this is where you lose or retain key insulation.) Although the Siesta 20 can compress a good bit, this style of sleeping bag is not meant for stuffing into a sack and packing deep into a traditional backpack. It’s not made of advanced materials, either, and it would be considered heavy by thru-hikers.

If you’re planning on occasionally hiking down the trail for more than a mile, or if you’re backpacking in colder weather, or if you’re a side-sleeping backpacker, we have included some options for you. Most backpacking sleeping bags are mummy bags that hug close to the body, holding in heat without drafty gaps of space. The upgrade and also-great picks in this guide are all backpacking sleeping bags, comfortable for most three-season conditions (that is, all but winter in most of the country) and suitable for locations ranging from public campgrounds to backcountry trails. (Again, our choices won’t be appropriate for those thru-hikers looking for ultralight gear.) Our also-great pick for side-sleepers is a backpacking bag with some extra space for those who toss and turn in their sleep. (Which may be more people than expected, because who doesn’t toss and turn a little when they’re sleeping outside?)

If you always camp with a partner, you may want to consider a purpose-built double sleeping bag. We’ve included our favorite here, but it’s important to note that many single rectangular bags can zip together with another twin bag to create an impromptu double sleeping bag. Unzip both bags fully, lay one on top of the other, then zip them together.

We spent 19 hours reading and evaluating every online review of sleeping bags that we could find. Some of the best pieces came from GearLab, which has many comprehensive reviews. We also leaned heavily on the work of Switchback Travel, Backpacker, and Gear Institute. In addition to reading reviews, we spoke with experts and then evaluated each of the 250-plus bags on our initial list based on how they were reported to perform according to the following considerations:

Warmth: Your body creates warmth, then your sleeping bag traps that warmth in an enclosed area. The more insulation your bag has, the better it will be at trapping your body heat, and the warmer you’ll be while you sleep. Bags that have too much empty space between you and the insulation will be less efficient. That’s why it’s important—with backpacking bags in particular—to make sure your bag fits your body snugly, and yet isn’t so tight that it feels restrictive or uncomfortable.

Insulation: Unlike mummy bags, rectangular down sleeping bags aren’t designed to keep you as warm as absolutely possible. Their rectangular shape, loose fit, and usual lack of a head cover limit their overall ability to retain heat. We figured that down filling was too expensive and unnecessary for a bag of this design—and our testing bore that out.

For more rugged outdoor camping, you’ll likely prefer a sleeping bag stuffed with down (unless allergies, cost, or ethical concerns get in the way) to a bag with synthetic fill. Down is expensive but light, compresses well, and proves to be incredibly insulating for its weight. If it’s taken care of properly, down will also last longer than synthetic fillings.

Fill power measures the “fluffiness” of down. If an ounce of down has higher fill power, it can trap more air. This increases the bag’s warmth (and cost) but not its weight. Ultralight hikers who are counting each ounce in their pack might not consider bags with less than 850 fill power, but we think 600 to 700 fill power is good enough for most people. One thing to note: A 650-fill-power and an 850-fill-power bag can be equally warm, but to make this happen, a 650-fill-power bag has to be significantly heavier than an 850-fill-power bag (it needs more down to achieve the same amount of insulation).

Temperature rating: For our testing, we focused on bags that were rated to be effective in low-limit temperature ratings of between 15 °F and 30 °F, which should be warm enough for most camping and backpacking environments from early spring to late fall (depending on the location).

Comfort: This is an unavoidably subjective criterion. To evaluate it as objectively as possible, we first compared notes from relevant review sites for each bag, looking specifically for comments on comfort and warmth. Slowly, we started to see some amount of consensus form across a few major brands and designs, which we used to narrow our scope.

Packability: A bag’s packed size and weight are less of a concern for a car camper than for a thru-hiker out on a monthlong excursion—and it might not be a concern at all for some car campers with larger vehicles. However, if you’re packing a small car with a weekend’s worth of stuff, you may be fighting for every inch you can manage. That’s when packability becomes important.

Weight: For backpacking bags, though, weight is an important factor; for that section of this guide, we focused on bags that weighed no more than 4 pounds (and most were under 3). While it’s true that many long-distance hikers, ultralighters, or alpinists wouldn’t consider carrying a bag that heavy, we think it’s fine for most hikers. A bag heavier than 3 pounds starts to become a real chore after anything more than a short-to-moderate hike.

Baffles: Baffles are stitched closures between channels that hold either down or synthetic filling in place. (Often, though, the word baffle appears as shorthand for the channel itself.) The stitching is usually aligned horizontally, although some manufacturers are experimenting with vertical or diagonal arrangements. Widely separated baffles are a recipe for cold spots because there often isn’t enough filling to spread evenly throughout the chamber, so we stayed away from bags with wide baffles.

Draft tube: Most bags also feature a draft tube running the length of the bag’s zipper, which blocks air from slipping between the teeth of the zipper.

Price: Sleeping bags can cost anywhere from $50 to $1,000, but we think most people can get everything they need for car camping for $130, and for backpacking, between $150 and $500. (Most backpacking bags costing less than $150 don’t have down filling, and the synthetic filling they do have isn’t the kind of high-quality insulation you’d need on a longer backpacking trip. Nor do they have decent warranties.) A decent-quality, down-filled backpacking bag should last for at least 10 years.

Ultimately, we narrowed our list down to 41 test models of all types.

First, we slept in the finalist sleeping bags. Kit Dillon got into each of the men’s/unisex candidates over the course of several weekend camping trips in Big Bear and along the coast of Central California, napping, reading, and generally hunkering down for the afternoon and evening to see how comfortable each bag felt on the trail.

Meanwhile, Liz Thomas carried some of our other top contenders on a 155-mile thru-hike of the San Diego Trans-County Trail. Though none of the bags are intended for winter use, Liz also camped out in Colorado in January, sleeping under the stars without a tent near a snow patch.

Kalee Thompson took the double bags on three group camping trips, including to Indian Cove Campground in Joshua Tree National Park and to the oceanside Sycamore Canyon Campground at Point Mugu State Park in Oxnard, California. Both of those trips had overnight temps in the low 30s. The third trip brought her to woodsy Wheeler Gorge near Ojai, California, where she and her fellow testers experienced mild nighttime lows in the 50s.

For our most recent update, in 2022, Sam tested seven new bags against our four existing picks for backpacking sleeping bags. He took them on a series of camping trips in Colorado’s high country, sleeping at (or over) 10,000 feet above sea level, where it gets cold even in July. He carried each sleeping bag in a backpack and hung out in it at night to get a sense of how comfortable they all were. After determining which were going to be finalists, he set up his tent and slept in those sleeping bags.

If you’re looking for a comfortable, versatile sleeping bag for car camping, the unisex REI Co-op Siesta Hooded 20 Sleeping Bag is our recommendation. This bag is the 2023 update of the Siesta we’ve been recommending for 3 years. We’re doing a more in-depth round of car-camping sleeping bags tests right now, but we still stand behind this pick. Weighing less than many of the other rectangular, synthetic-fill bags we tested, it’s warm enough to use in spring and fall as well as summer. The 2023 version of the bag is rated to 20 °F, even warmer than its previous incarnation, the Siesta Hooded 25. It packs down smaller than the competition as well. The Siesta 20 comes in two size options (regular and long) to accommodate nearly any size sleeper without excess weight and material. There’s a double design as well for couples, which we will be testing against other couples sleeping bags soon. Its shell and interior are both made of a water-resistant polyester taffeta, a soft material that makes barely any noise at all. A few of our testers reported being able to slide in and out of this bag at night without stirring their tentmate. In addition, as of 2023, the insulation material is now made from 98% recycled polyester and all of the Siesta’s textiles are now bluesign certified, which means they have been vetted for the use of some potentially harmful chemicals during the manufacturing process.

The Siesta 20 is surprisingly warm for how thin it feels. In heat retention, it came in second only to the Slumberjack Country Squire 20 on our list of car-camping bags. We also appreciate that the top of the Siesta 20 comes equipped with a loose hood that can be pulled in to help trap heat in colder weather. The ‘23 version also has a draft collar to mitigate air inflow. A no-snag strip along the zipper and ample draft tubes along the edge of this sleeping bag are thoughtful touches. While the strip didn’t prove to be totally snag-proof in our tests, it was the best design of any model we tried at stopping those annoying catches. And the draft tubes were very good at keeping breezes from breaking through the long zippered bag.

Compared with our other picks, this bag has less overall padding inside. It’s not as noticeable if you have a thick sleeping pad or air mattress, but next to a down sleeping bag, for instance, it stands out. The REI Co-op Siesta Hooded 25 Sleeping Bag costs nearly twice as much as some of the cheapest car-camping bags we tested, but we think it’s worth the investment.

The Montbell Down Hugger is the most versatile sleeping bag we tested. It’s suitable for beginner backpackers and seasoned campers alike, due to its sturdy construction, comfortable bedding, and lifetime warranty. Although the Down Hugger is billed as a unisex bag, we think it’s best for all people who sleep warm.

Most sleeping bags tend to stretch in one direction (perpendicular to their baffles), but the diagonal baffling on the bag allows movement in two directions—vertically and horizontally.

“Personally,” said Kit, “I tend to feel constricted in mummy bags that are too tight, but the Montbell seemed to move with me no matter how much I spread out at night.” This unique design also eliminated gaps between his body and the bag, a feature that minimizes drafty dead spaces and ought to make the bag comfortable for a broader range of body shapes. It’s this versatility that makes the Montbell our upgrade pick. Unlike other mummy bags, this adaptive stretch is included in the footbox, which is flexible between your feet rather than wrapped around them like traditional muffler-shaped footboxes.

Along with a draft tube running the length of the bag’s zipper, the Montbell has a draft collar that’s meant to lock in heat. Some experts warned us against Velcro on sleeping bags, saying it could snag on the nylon shell, but the Velcro closure on the Montbell appears to be very gentle. The Montbell is EN limit rated to 11 °F.

The bag’s 650-fill-power down accounts for nearly half of the bag’s total weight (2 pounds 10 ounces), and this shows. The Down Hugger felt loftier than any other bag we tested; it envelopes you the minute you’re inside. Compressed, the Down Hugger measures 8.6 liters, and 7.5 by 14.8 inches. That’s not great for a dedicated backpacking bag, but for weekend hikers who take only a few longer trips per year, it should be fine. The bag comes in either a right or left zip configuration, which means a couple could buy two and zip them together. The zippers include anti-snag covers, which have worked well so far in our testing. The whole Down Hugger line uses a mix of goose and duck down and comes in a variety of fill powers, fill weights, and two lengths: regular and long. We’ve selected the 650 #1 because of its reasonable price and three-season rating, but if you want to upgrade to a warmer bag, or you want to shave off a little weight with the help of a higher fill power, you’ve got those options.

The Down Hugger’s draw cords, which cinch the hood and draft collar tight, are not as elastic as the rest of the bag. As you move and stretch the baffles, the draw cords often loosen to match your movement, but this creates small gaps and openings in an otherwise snug bag. This is nothing that some strategic cord cinching and careful sleep adjustments can’t fix, but it does seem like a small oversight in an otherwise great bag.

Additionally, the cinches on the Down Hugger’s hood have a tendency to crowd into your peripheral vision or to rub against your face as you’re trying to sleep.

The Marmot Women’s Teton was the coziest women’s bag we tested. You might want this bag (regardless of your gender) if you get colder than most people at night and can fit in it (the larger of its two sizes is suitable for people as tall as 6 feet). We liked it for its warmth, comfort, thoughtful design features, and inexpensive price. While some bags, like the Mountain Hardwear bag we tested, use a stiff fabric for the shell or liner, Marmot’s fabric is soft and silky—some of our testers even called it “seductive.” At first we thought we’d gotten the price wrong because the bag was so extremely puffy and well-made—the Marmot Teton looks and feels like a $500 bag, but it actually costs just over $300.

Lying on top of the Teton feels like cuddling a body pillow. The bag’s 650-fill-power down doesn’t bounce back as quickly as the pricier 900-plus-fill-power down in our upgrade picks, the Feathered Friends bags, but the Teton still felt loftier than most of the bags we slept in. While Liz was camping in Colorado, her inflatable sleeping pad popped a hole and went flat in the night, but the Teton was so fluffy that her back still felt supported.

The Teton is designed to warm up colder sleepers. The Teton has a narrower foot box and shoulder girth than the unisex bags we tried; by eliminating drafty dead space, Marmot reduces the amount of air inside the bag that needs to be heated. The footbox in the version we retested in 2022 has an additional zipper that you can unzip to expand the width, so if you do want more room for your feet you can have it. The Teton’s footbox is also one of the most generously insulated we’ve seen—Liz didn’t need to wear socks to bed on a 24-degree January night in Colorado while sleeping in this bag—and it has the thickest draft tubes we’ve seen on a sleeping bag too. A similarly well-stuffed draft collar protects another key area prone to heat loss. The Teton has among the most generous hoods we tried, giving plenty of room to insert a pillow. But the hood also cinched around the face better than the other bags we tried and kept all but our noses and mouths warm. Marmot calls this a 15 °F bag, but that seems conservative given that it is EN comfort rated to 14 °F and limit rated to 0 °F.

This bag has two half-length zippers running down both sides of the bag, which we liked—they make getting in and out of the bag easy since you can always find at least one of the zippers. The dual zippers also allowed us to regulate our temperature on warmer nights. Plus, the bag’s plow-shaped zipper shoes help prevent snags when you’re opening and closing the bag. The Teton and another of our picks, the Big Agnes Sidewinder, were the only backpacking bags we tested that include a zip pocket accessible from the inside of the bag. The Teton’s pocket is big enough to hold a phone, which is helpful because keeping lithium batteries warm (though not hot!) increases their longevity and ensures you won’t wake up to a dead battery.

The Marmot Teton is available in 5-foot-6 (regular) and 6-foot (long; it costs $10 more) lengths; Liz originally tested the regular size, and Sam tested the long version in 2022. It’s narrower than most men’s bags, but only by an inch or two compared with traditionally shaped mummy bags like the Mountain Hardwear Phantom. Sam, who identifies as male but is on the smaller side, had no difficulty in tossing and turning or sleeping in the fetal position in the Teton. The Teton is also slightly wider in the shoulders than the Feathered Friends Egret, our pick for serious female backpackers.

In many ways, the Teton and Big Agnes’s Sidewinder are very similar. The Teton is warmer but bulkier, whereas the Sidewinder is lighter and more packable. If you’re doing a mix of car camping and some backpacking, and tend to sleep colder, we recommend the Teton. But if you’re doing more backpacking than car camping, check out the Sidewinder.

The Teton uses waterproof down, and the shell has a DWR (durable water repellent) coating. Older versions of the Teton weren’t great at repelling water, but in our testing, the 2022 model continued to resist absorbing water after eight weeks of use. While testing the previous versions of the Teton we spotted a few feather quills poking out, and we saw one review on Marmot’s page complaining about feather leakage in an even earlier model. However, those previous versions of the Teton did not use calendering, a finishing process that makes materials more impervious to down; the 2022 Teton was made with a calendered (and recycled) nylon ripstop shell and a calendered taffeta lining. (Taffeta refers to the type of weave traditionally used in fabric for gowns and dresses, maybe that’s why all our testers keep saying this bag feels luxurious.) We didn’t see any down feathers escaping while testing the newest version of this bag, and we suspect the updated material may help prevent this.

The biggest downside to the Marmot Teton is that there’s perhaps too much down inside. This was the warmest bag we tested, and likely overkill for most summer camping and backpacking, especially for warm sleepers. The Marmot Teton uses a high fill-power-rated down, which isn’t great for compression but is good for keeping you warm—at times, too warm. Our testers found themselves unzipping both zippers on the bag and folding the top to one side in temps above 40 °F. Since neither of the zippers extend all the way to the footbox, you can’t stick your feet out of this bag without more or less lying on top of it, either.

Though intended for side-sleepers, the design of this backpacking bag (which is insulated with a combination of down and synthetic fill) works well for anyone who tosses and turns while they sleep.

The Big Agnes Sidewinder SL 20° (men’s and women’s) was the best mummy-style sleeping bag we found for sleeping on our sides. Even though it’s designed for side-sleepers, we thought this was good for anyone who tosses and turns when they’re sleeping outside—which is many of us. We liked the Sidewinder for its many active sleeper-friendly features, the comfortable materials and design, and its reasonable price. If you find yourself sleeping in multiple positions throughout the night, this is the bag for you. Also, if a highly packable sleeping bag is a priority, this bag packs down almost as small as the Feathered Friends Swallow and Egret bags, our picks for serious backpackers, and it costs $150 less.

Inflatable sleeping pads are comfortable, but they’re not as comfortable as a bed. So, your night spent sleeping in a tent will probably involve some tossing and turning. Since the Sidewinder is designed for side-sleepers who alternate between sides throughout the night, it’s also great for anyone who likes to move around to find that comfortable-enough position on that sleeping pad. The shape of the shell is slightly wider in the middle than other backpacking bags—think of it as the dad-bod figure of mummy bags. In this bag, we were able to move between every sleeping position easily. It also has a layer of synthetic insulation in that wider midriff area, so when your hips compress the 650-fill down that provides the bag’s primary insulation, there’s another layer of insulation to prevent cold spots. No matter what position we woke up in, we were always warm, and could always find the center-aligned zipper, too. Most sleeping bags have a zipper either on the left side or the right—or one on each side, as in the Marmot Teton—but the Sidewinder puts the zipper in the center. We found the Sidewinder’s center zipper easier to reach than every side zipper, even if we weren’t lying on our side.

Backpacking equipment tends to be slippery, including inflatable pillows. When backpacking, you're probably losing that slippery little pillow every time you change positions while sleeping. The Sidewinder’s hood has a pillow sleeve made of stretch material sewn onto the back to prevent this. Stuff your pillow through one of two small openings inside the hood, and your pillow will stay behind your head while you move around. You still have to ensure the pillow is positioned under your head after you move. But the sleeve does at least help you keep track of your pillow, so you aren’t reaching around in the dark to find it after you roll over.

This bag also has an excellent hood beyond the pillow sleeve. Since the zipper goes down the middle of the bag, the draft collar is one continuous loop from one side of the zipper to the other. Most sleeping bags have two draft collars—one along the top and sides of the hood and a separate one along the chin. The continuous draft collar on this bag feels cozier than those two-collar bags. There’s only one spot where the collar overlaps itself; that’s half the number of overlapping fabric pieces. And, less overlapping fabric is more comfortable. Plus, that spot where the material overlaps is the oh-so-fluffy draft tube that covers the zipper. This tube of down insulation needs to be overstuffed since the zipper goes over the center of your body. Well, we think this overstuffed draft tube is dreamy to snuggle your face into.

All of our picks feature softer materials than that traditional slippery material you probably think of when you think “sleeping bag.” The Sidewinder has a soft, comfortable nylon ripstop shell. The polyester taffeta lining feels good against your skin and doesn’t make loud swishing noises as you move around, either. Compared with the Teton, this material isn’t quite as luxurious feeling, but it’s almost that luxurious. Like the Teton, the Sidewinder has a zippered pocket for keeping your phone’s battery warm on cold nights. Surprisingly few backpacking bags have this feature.

We haven’t been testing this bag long enough to be sure how it lasts over time; we did see a complaint on the Big Agnes site about down leakage, though. We’ll continue to use the bag and keep an eye on how it fares. Also, although the Sidewinder’s zipper shoe has a snowplow tip, which helps avoid snags, the material on either side of the zipper is the usual soft, snaggable shell or lining fabric. (The Feathered Friends sleeping bags we’ve tested, by contrast, have a strip of firmer fabric along the zipper to prevent snags.)

Cut wider for backpackers who sleep hot, this pricey bag is stuffed with lightweight down insulation, made in America, and backed by a solid warranty.

Mummy-style sleeping bags haven’t changed much in the past few years, so it’s the details that make the Feather Friends Swallow YF 30 stand out, especially for the price: durable water-resistant nylon outer shells, 900-plus-fill-power down, luxuriant inner nylon materials, hardy snap retainers around the collars, and a lifetime warranty.

Feathered Friends bags are almost 1.5 times the price of the other down bags we considered. At first we were turned off by this high price—but if you’re planning to do a lot of camping for many years, we believe the expense may be worth it for a sleeping bag that should last a lifetime. We liked several of the company’s three-season bags, but we’d recommend the unisex 30-degree Swallow YF (formerly called the Osprey) as a good bag for serious backpackers looking for a high-quality, lightweight sleeping bag. Male-identifying testers especially loved this bag, as did campers of all genders who tended to sleep hot and had broader shoulders.

The Swallow 30 weighs 1 pound 12 ounces and uses 900-plus-fill goose down—something you don’t often see in bags costing less than $500. When we compressed all the sleeping bags we tested, the Swallow ended up being the smallest, but it still bounced back into an indulgent nest of down. Feathered Friends does not use EN ratings, but the general consensus among backpackers is that the company’s self-ratings tend to be accurate. According to the Feather Friends system, this bag will keep you warm down to 30 °F/–1.1 °C.

The Schoeller NanoSphere 20 nylon shell was among the most durable and waterproof fabrics we saw on a bag. Since we tested these bags, the company has changed the fabric it uses for this bag’s shell to a nylon Pertex Quantum that is, they say, still more waterproof. We’ll be testing the bags soon to make sure they perform as well as they did before.

The Swallow 30 has well-thought-out features, including an “overlapping dual-webbing zip guard,” as Feathered Friends bills it—essentially, a narrow strip of firmer fabric near the zipper that guides the zipper plow away from snagging on the nylon. If you plan to camp in colder climates and need extra warmth, the Swallow 20 is the exact same shape as the Swallow 30, but has 3.2 ounces of extra filling; it’s rated to 20 °F instead of 30 °F.

The Egret 20 has all the advantages of the Swallow 30—lightweight down fill, a solid warranty, and it’s US-made—but with a narrower cut and more insulation for people who get cold at night.

May be out of stock

The Feathered Friends Egret YF 20 is a high-end bag for serious backpackers who want a lightweight and well-constructed bag that will last a lifetime. It’s billed as a women’s bag, but we found it to be a good bag for anyone shorter than 5-foot-9 who sleeps cold.

It’s uncommon to find a sleeping bag of this quality for less than $500. Like its cousin, the Feathered Friends Swallow, the Egret is popular because of its details. It didn’t have a built-in draft collar, but the stuffing in the hood was generous enough to make up for it. Instead, there is a generous tube of down around the neck that also keeps the cold metal zipper from rubbing against your neck at night. The foot box is also very well insulated.

The Feathered Friends bags are among the lightest sleeping bags we tested: The women’s medium Egret weighs 1 pound 19 ounces. Feathered Friends does not use EN ratings, but the general consensus among backpackers is that the company’s ratings tend to be accurate. To us, the bag’s 20 °F (non-EN) rating felt accurate: The bag stayed toasty warm when the thermometer dipped below 20 °F.

During Liz’s 160-mile backpacking trip across San Diego County, the Egret 20 repelled water better than any other bag she tried. While it’s not completely waterproof, the shell’s DWR coating prevented the down insulation from soaking through, and the bag stayed fluffy and warm in humid and moist conditions. During our most recent round of testing, Sam tested the latest version of the Egret 20, made with the more downproof and water-resistant Pertex Quantum 20D mini-ripstop fabric. He slept in a one-person backpacking tent during a rainstorm, and though the foot end of this bag was often rubbing against the wet tent wall, the new material’s DWR coating kept the down dryer than many bags would. But if you do find yourself surrounded by feathers at any point, the Egret is backed by Feathered Friends’s lifetime warranty.

There were, however, some downsides to this Egret besides the price: Unlike the other bags we tried, this bag uses a metal snap button to secure the top of the bag near the hood. The snap is on the outside of the sleeping bag, which means it can be tough to secure from inside the bag. The zipper also doesn’t continue around the foot box, which makes it difficult to stick a foot outside the bag to cool off.

People who camp in warmer climates and need less insulation but who like the slimmer cut of the Egret might want to check out the Egret 30.

The synthetic-fill Big Agnes Dream Island is the most comfortable double bag for car-camping couples, thanks to a built-in sleeping-pad sleeve, which prevents midnight misalignments.

The Big Agnes Dream Island 20° comes closer to feeling like a real bed than any other double bag we tested. A built-in sleeping-pad pocket eliminates the middle-of-the-night bunching and sliding we’ve experienced with other bags (the pad is sold separately). The Dream Island is also lofty and comfortable—more like sleeping with a big, soft quilt draped over you than bunking in a typical sleeping bag. When a half-dozen bags were piled in Kalee’s home office, she found this became her go-to bag for midafternoon catnaps (her actual cat liked it too).

Though the Dream Island’s outer shell is ripstop nylon, the bag’s inner lining is made of a recycled polyester with a water-repellent finish. In the past, we had loved the lining, which used to be a cotton/poly blend, for its softness, as well as for the fact that it eliminated the constant swishing noises that inevitably accompany a night in a nylon- or polyester-lined bag. The bag’s lining has since been redesigned; we’ll be testing it soon to see if it’s become noisier.

The Dream Island uses 60 ounces of 50%-recycled polyester insulation. It has a 126-inch circumference at the shoulders, then tapers modestly to 118 inches at the hips and 112 inches at the feet, where it has a roomy box cut. We liked thoughtful features like the small strip of “no-draft” fabric that snaps between the heads of its two inhabitants, allowing them to better seal themselves in and stay warmer on cold nights. The drawstring at the hood cinches in four spots, allowing each member of a couple to adjust the hood precisely to their own preferences.

The most distinctive feature of the Big Agnes bag is its integrated sleeping-pad sleeve that allows it to dispense with insulation in the bottom half of the bag. At first, we were skeptical of this design, which seemed like it might be too fussy or not versatile enough. But after three weekend car-camping trips and a half-dozen nights with the bag layered on Kalee’s own bed at home, we’re convinced of the superiority of this design. The Big Agnes system addresses a problem it had never occurred to us to try to solve: the annoying tendency of a sleeping bag to slide off or become otherwise akilter from a sleeping pad in the middle of the night. Previous camping trips in a double bag placed on top of an Aerobed-type mattress had led us to conclude that this problem becomes more acute when you’re two to a bag. Nylon or polyester bags can be slippery atop also-slippery air mattresses, with a tendency to either shimmy down the mattress or flop off one side. The problem is exaggerated if you pitch your tent on anything but perfectly flat ground. But because the Dream Island sandwiches sleepers securely between pad and bag, there’s no slipping and sliding; instead you get a better shot at a restful sleep.

The Dream Island’s sleeve fits one of Big Agnes’s 50-by-78-inch double air mattresses. We used the Insulated Double Z, which has since been discontinued, but Big Agnes now makes a double-size version of its Hinman model. (You could also use two standard 25-by-78-inch pads; the Hinman comes in that size as well.) Many companies make car-camping pads with these larger-than-average dimensions, and any of them will fit the Dream Island just fine. Though you could also use two smaller 20-by-72-inch pads—a common size for Therm-a-Rest–type camping pads—they’ll leave several extra inches on all sides of the Big Agnes’s sleeve. If you’re going to be investing in a high-quality double bag like this one, we recommend pairing it with a double pad that fits perfectly. (A bag that pairs better with backpacking sleeping pads you already own is the Sierra Designs Frontcountry Bed Duo, a hybrid sleeping bag/comforter design that’s surprisingly warm and versatile.)

At home, our testers occasionally slept inside this bag directly on top of a king-size bed and didn’t notice the lack of insulation underneath them. That said, we don’t think it would make sense to buy this bag if you’re not intending to use the integrated sleeve.

Though a couple of our tested bags might take up a third of the space in a small trunk and weigh close to 12 pounds, the Dream Island packs down to a relatively compact 12 by 22 inches when in its stuff sack; it weighs 7 pounds. It’s also the only bag we found that comes with a separate mesh storage bag, making it easy to store correctly for maximum loft protection.

Other features we like include a “pillow barn” that allows you to tuck your pillow into the sheetlike fabric, and corner hand pockets on the comforter so you can “snuggle that top layer of the bag in around your neck,” a Big Agnes rep told us.

Though the bag is rated to 20 °F, it left Kalee slightly chilly on a February night in the high desert of Joshua Tree National Park (low: 36 °F). Admittedly, she sleeps cold and usually reaches for a decade-old down bag rated to 0 °F whenever there’s a chance of temperatures dipping into the 30s. Most of the other couples she and her husband camped with that weekend were also colder than they would have liked inside rival double bags. Unfortunately, it is difficult to evaluate the warmth of the bags objectively because none of them adhere to EN standards, protocols in which researchers establish the warmth of a bag through standardized laboratory testing.

If you’re a restless sleeper and don’t mind getting strange looks around the campfire: Consider the Sierra Designs Mobile Mummy 15° (men’s and women’s), which allows you to stick your arms and legs out of the bag while you’re sleeping. When this Sierra Designs bag was discontinued, about three years ago, we were sorry to see it go, although it was no longer a pick. The Mobile Mummy allows you to extend your arms through baffled openings and has a two-way zipper to free your legs entirely. This means male users don’t even have to leave their bags to relieve themselves in the middle of the night. Sleepers of all genders should appreciate that you can adjust exactly how much of your body is in or out of the bag to keep you warmer on colder nights and cooler on hotter ones. It’s insulated with hydrophobic 800-fill down, and the shell and lining are ripstop recycled nylon.

If you’re a side-sleeper backpacker who gets warm very easily: Consider the Nemo Disco, a spoon-shaped bag intended for side-sleepers that has zippered “thermo gills” for ventilation. We thought the bag performed well, and liked many of the features, including the giant draft collar and the stretchy cinch cord for the hood. But we couldn’t lie comfortably in a fetal position, the exterior zippered pocket barely fits a phone, and we didn’t think the vents were a big enough improvement over simply unzipping the bag to justify the trouble.

If you mostly sleep on your back and are looking for a high-quality backpacking value: Consider the Mountain Hardwear Bishop Pass, which is a great deal for a no-frills, 650-fill down-insulated mummy-shaped bag (closer to $200 than $300). That being said, we found it slightly too constrictive for moving around inside the bag when zippered inside.

If weight is your top concern, but money runs a close second: Consider the REI Co-op Magma 30 (men’s and women’s), which weighs only 20 ounces and costs much less (even at $350) than other ultralight bags of a comparable weight. (Ultralight bags are a niche category that we don’t address in this guide, mainly because they’re pricey and often made by smaller manufacturers and therefore hard to find.) The 850-fill-down bag was comfortable enough and had a great hood and zipper, but the narrow cut was constrictive and the nylon lining and shell had that slippery ultralight fabric feel to it. Still, if you want to try ultralight backpacking, this could be a good first step.

Choosing a sleeping bag that fits your body and sleeping style is more important than just going by the gender on the label. A women’s bag might be better for you than a unisex bag if you consider certain factors, such as your age, level of exhaustion, health conditions, medications, body height and mass, level of nourishment, and the altitude of your campsite. Here are three of the most important sleeping-bag variables to take into account:

Length: Regardless of gender, you need to choose a bag that’s the right length for your body. Men’s and women’s bags often come in different sizes based on length and width (think of short, regular, long, wide). Anyone 5-foot-6 or shorter should consider buying a women’s bag, which typically is the only model offered in a 5-foot-6 length. (Women’s bags are sometimes available in 5-foot-9 lengths, too, which could be a smart option for people who don’t need a full 6-foot bag.)

The most-efficient and warmest bag for you will minimize excess space inside the bag. Ideally, you should aim for the Goldilocks area, where you aren’t swimming in the bag, but it is not so small that you feel like you’ll burst out of it. Another problem with trying to squeeze yourself into a too-small bag: When your feet, hips, or shoulders press against the edge of the bag too much, you end up squishing the down. To insulate against the cold, down needs to be able to fluff out as much as possible.

Contour: Women’s bags are warmer than unisex and men’s bags because they are designed with narrower shoulders in mind. Your shoulders are close to your core and central organs, so this is an area where minimizing dead space is particularly important in sleeping bag design. Regardless of your gender, if you’re a person with narrower shoulders—like those of the stereotypical cyclist or endurance runner—you may find a women’s bag to be warmer and more comfortable for you.

Women’s bags are often wider at the hip area, too, because women’s bodies are typically wider around the hips than men’s. As we mentioned above, the best way to stay warm is to avoid having body parts in constant contact with your sleeping bag. If you’re a person with wider hips, you may prefer to sleep in a women’s bag because of the contoured design.

Insulation: Most well-designed women’s bags have additional insulation to protect the areas where the majority of people are more sensitive to changes in temperature: the feet, the head, and the upper body. By generously insulating these key areas, a so-called women’s sleeping bag can make you feel a lot warmer without needing to have extra stuffing all across the bag.

Many manufacturers use independent, third-party labs to determine temperature ratings for gear. Tests were based on the universally accepted European Normal (EN) 13537 protocol until 2017 when the International Standardization Organization (ISO) took over with their updated protocol ISO 23537. You’ll still see EN ratings on some bags, and for all intents and purposes, the standards are interchangeable.

EN/ISO ratings tell campers about the range of temperatures in which a piece of gear should keep them warm. There are two ratings you’re likely to see: comfort and limit. Comfort ratings refer to the temperature at which you will stay comfortable and warm. Limit ratings, on the other hand, refer to survivable temperatures. You won’t die, but you certainly won’t be comfortable if you take your 20-degree-limit-rated sleeping bag into 20-degree weather. (Since weather can be unpredictable, REI even suggests choosing a bag that has a lower rating than the temperatures you expect to experience while camping.)

The temperature rating cited on many women’s bags uses the EN/ISO comfort rating; on men’s bags, you tend to see the limit rating. According to the labels on REI’s women’s sleeping bags, this is common practice: “Women and smaller-sized people generally have a lower tolerance for colder temperatures, while men and larger-sized people generally have a higher tolerance for colder temperatures. Industry standard uses the comfort rating for women’s bags and the limit rating for men’s and unisex bags.”

Initially, we were taken aback when we compared similarly rated men’s and women’s bags and found that the women’s bags were more expensive than the men’s bags. But according to REI’s explanation of the difference between men’s and women’s bags, women’s bags would need more insulation to achieve a given temperature rating (since women’s bags are comfort rated and men’s are limit rated). More insulation would, in turn, mean a higher fill weight and more down, which often costs more.

The EN/ISO certification process can be expensive—sometimes prohibitively so for smaller companies—so some of the bag makers in this guide, like Feathered Friends, forgo it and use their own estimates instead. Companies might also skip this testing for more basic camping gear, like car camping sleeping bags.

This coming winter and spring, we’ll be testing a new crop of car-camping sleeping bags, as well as the latest version of the Big Agnes Dream Island 20° and other two-person car-camping bags.

Redcamp Cotton Flannel Sleeping Bag: Despite this bag’s nice length and lower price, its materials and construction felt cheap in comparison with our top pick.

L.L.Bean Camp Sleeping Bag Cotton-Blend-Lined: This bag typically costs about as much as the REI Siesta 20, but the latter is more comfortable, easier to pack, and better for longer treks than this model.

Cabela's Mountain Trapper 40 °F Sleeping Bag: This bag is similar to the now-discontinued Slumberjack Country Squire 20 in size and price, but we found the Country Squire 20’s inner liner to be a little more comfortable than the flannel of the Mountain Trapper. We also preferred the removable carrying case of the Slumberjack over the wrap-and-strap stowaway system of this model.

We also tested bags from Big Agnes, Kelty, The North Face, Slumberjack, and Wenzel that have since been discontinued. We’ll be testing new options in this category soon.

Big Agnes Spike Lake: This budget down bag felt thin and lumpy.

The Sierra Designs unisex Nitro 800/20 and women’s Nitro 800/20 are well-designed bags with two quirks that testers found polarizing. Both bags have half zippers and a foot vent (essentially a hole in the foot box where you can stick out your feet to prevent overheating). We found this combination odd, though, because the bags couldn’t be unzipped all the way—some testers had trouble getting into them.

The Sierra Designs Cloud 20º is a zipperless sleeping bag that relies on overlapping layers of fabric to trap warmth inside. We liked the sleeve to hold a sleeping pad or pillow (or both) in place sewn into the bag. But we didn’t think the zipperless design worked as well for side-sleepers or stomach-sleepers.

The Big Agnes Torchlight UL is a well-designed backpacking mummy bag with two extra sets of zippers and expandable panels to adjust the fit of the bag. You can use these side zippers to allow for more room in the shoulders, hips, footbox, or all of these above. We thought this was a useful feature, but the zippers snagged often while we were adjusting the fit of the bag.

The Sea To Summit Spark 28°F is another super-light mummy bag that was even lighter than the REI Co-op Magma. Sea to Summit made this bag lighter by shortening the zipper to three-quarter length. We found this shorter zipper made it difficult to get out of the bag, and the narrow shape made it impossible to move around in the bag.

In the past, we’ve tested and dismissed other bags from Big Agnes, Cotopaxi, Nemo, and REI Co-op that have since been discontinued.

Sierra Designs Frontcountry Bed Duo: We recommend this bag, and in the past when we had a larger guide dedicated to double bags, it was a runner-up pick. It’s an ideal option if you don’t want to get the big sleeping pad that goes along with our top choice, the Dream Island.

The North Face Dolomite Double 20/-7: Simple yet functional, the Dolomite received glowing reviews from users on the company’s site and elsewhere. Our main criticism we probably wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t slept in so many competitors: the slipperiness and constant swishing sound of a bag that’s polyester inside and out. Almost all of our testers preferred a more sheetlike lining when presented with the choice. The Dolomite is also noticeably less lofty than the other bags we tested. It’s since been replaced in the company’s lineup by the Dolomite One Double Sleeping Bag; we plan to test new bags in this category soon.

Teton Sports Mammoth 0 °F: A truly enormous bag. Our testers liked the Mammoth’s supersoft brushed-poly flannel lining and its roomy cut, though the couple who used the bag on a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park were agitated by the cinch cord, which falls at the neck in a flap of fabric that interrupts the bag’s otherwise smooth lining. One of our testing couples, a 6-foot-6 man and a 5-foot-10 woman, slept in the bag at Wheeler Gorge Campground near Ojai, California, in April and found it plenty big and warm, though they had a hard time keeping it on their side-by-side sleeping pads. After a poor night’s rest they declared the effort required to get the bag back in the way-too-tight sack “absolutely not worth it.” There’s no doubt: It takes a near-Herculean effort to wrestle this bag back into its carry bag. Enough users have complained about it that the company actually posted a video proving that it can be done. Mission accomplished?

REI has some important tips and tricks aimed at keeping your bag in good form. The advice covers how to sleep in it, clean it, treat it, and store it. Here are the basics:

This article was edited by Christine Ryan.

Jack Cramer, The Best Sleeping Bags for Camping of 2022, GearLab, November 8, 2019

Aaron Martray and Kris Diers, designer and owner and director of operations at Katabatic Gear, in-person interview, February 18, 2018

Kate Mansfield and Emilee Campbell, designers at Marmot, telephone interview, October 26, 2017

Scott Shimonek, designer and owner of Wilderness Excursions Gear, telephone interview, October 26, 2017

Garrett Nixon, production manager and lead designer at Feathered Friends, telephone interview, October 26, 2017

Jessica Haist, How to Choose a Women’s Sleeping Bag, GearLab, May 14, 2020

Casey Sumnicht, equipment product manager at Sierra Designs, phone interview, May 2016

Katie Hughes, senior marketing specialist at Big Agnes, interview, 2016

How to Choose Sleeping Bags for Camping, REI

Sam Schild is a writer and outdoor adventurer based in Denver. A former academic, teacher, and bicycle mechanic, he now finds joy in adventures as often as possible. Whether he travels by bicycle or on foot, he uses his experience outside to bring inspiration to all the stories he tells.

Kit Dillon is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. He was previously an app developer, oil derrick inspector, public-radio archivist, and sandwich shop owner. He has written for Popular Science, The Awl, and the New York Observer, among others. When called on, he can still make a mean sandwich.

Kalee Thompson is the senior editor heading up the team responsible for health, fitness, sleep, and baby/kid coverage. She has been a writer on the emergency-prep and outdoor beats at Wirecutter and has also covered natural disasters for Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines.

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Waterproof Cover For Patio Chair Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).