A lack of sleep will quickly affect your ability to perform, either from a general lack of enthusiasm or more seriously through mental and physical tiredness. The correct sleeping bag will make a massive difference to the quality of your sleep and therefore deserves serious thought before venturing into the outdoors.

Down Vs Synthetic
Ounce for ounce nothing insulates as effectively as down. Down filled bags are cosy, very compressible and when correctly cared for will last for many years. Recently the quality of synthetic bags has dramatically improved to offer very attractive warmth to weight ratios, albeit not quite as good as down. However, synthetic fillings big plus comes from the fact that unlike down it retains a high percentage of its insulating properties when wet; making synthetic bags a more practical alternative in damp and humid conditions.

Temperature Ratings
In order to standardize the temperature ratings provided by sleeping bag manufacturers there has been a push to encourage the use of the European devised test EN 13537. We provide both the EN Test temperature ratings as well as Ellis Brigham’s own category selector to give customers a clear indication of a bag’s intended use.

Comfort Temp – lower limit at which a sleeping bag user with a rolled up body posture is globally in thermal equilibrium and not feeling cold.

Extreme Temp – the very limit at which the bag can be used where there is a very real risk of hypothermia and other temperature related ailments.

NB: Please note that these results assume that the person is clothed, using a quality sleeping mat and is hydrated and nourished. Temperatures should be used as a guide only and if in any doubt we suggest that you always select a bag providing more warmth than you may consider necessary.