This Is the Best Sleeping Bag

Every year, my family kicks off summer—aka camping season—with a weekend in the high desert, where it’s a blisteringly hot 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and drops to the 40s at night. Every year, my despairing husband tries to accommodate his dog, wife, and children by filling up our entire truck with every single variety of sleeping material we own, from lightweight liners to camping quilts to my 0-degree mummy bag.

How do you arrange sleeping materials when everyone in your family has different heat tolerances (my son and husband run hot, my daughter and I run very, very cold); when everyone goes to bed at different times; and when your tent is sometimes stifling and sometimes freezing? We resigned ourselves to constantly waking up and adjusting layers, shuffling under extra blankets, zipping up the mummy bag, or pressing against other bodies in the tent (this is my son’s strategy, and I don’t recommend it).

This year, we solved the issue with the Rumpl Wrap Sack ($250). This is the most amazing sleeping bag I’ve ever used. My son stole the tester that Rumpl sent, then we had to buy my daughter another one. I want it back!

Sleeping Burrito

Courtesy of REI

The Rumpl is a synthetic sleeping bag. It’s rated for 20 degrees Fahrenheit and tested (by Rumpl) to temperatures down to 10 degrees. You can also order a camp pillow in matching colorways ($60) that fits neatly into the hood. This has solved the problem of my children just grabbing the pillows straight off their beds to sleep in the dirt for three days.

The temperature ratings are misleading, however, because the genius of the Wrap Sack is that you can choose exactly how much insulation you want. The sleeping bag is really a clipable, foldable sleeping blanket. You can open it entirely when you’re hot at 8 pm; wrap one layer on top of your kid when the temperature has dropped 10 degrees at 10 pm; then wrap another layer on at 1 or 2 am when it gets even colder, like a burrito in fun colors.

“But Adrienne,” you say, “could you not do this with a backpacking quilt?” Interesting that you ask. I have tried. It’s why my husband has gotten into the habit of packing nearly every type of sleeping bedding that we’ve ever owned for every trip. You have not known true, exhausted despair until it’s 1 am in the morning after a full day of swimming and hiking; you’re trapped in a tent with your entire family, far from civilization; and your children are sobbing loudly as they thrash around in the pitch-black darkness trying to find the exact right layers.

This one’s too hot! This one’s too cold! The zipper is stuck! The dog farted! We’ve endured this rigmarole for so many nights, only for us all to fall into an exhausted stupor at 4 am when the sun starts coming out, and waking up bathed in sweat at 9 am, right when the tent starts becoming baking hot.