What to Put under or Over my Air Mattress?

Last Updated on November 24, 2022 by DAVID

A camping trip is overall fun. It doesn’t mean you pass the time with lots of suffering without a home. It means you can enjoy the fullest with the available facilities and low burden.

As the air mattress has no insulation added, so the air inside the body moves through the mattress and makes you feel cold. Insulating your air mattress air inside can be a proper solution for keeping you warm. You can add different points under or over your Air Mattress.

What to put under my air mattress during camping?

By putting a material under the air mattress, you may create air circulation better and ventilate well. You can pick any of the following things, but these would not ensure warm feelings in cool weather.

Tarps

You can put a tarp and blanket in between the ground and the air mattress. It can help the ventilation to make you cool. The tarp can protect the air mattress from any rocks or stones too.

Foam

If you put foam under the air mattress, it does not help much to ventilate the air, but you can feel warm on your camping bed because of the insulation feature of the foam. The main ingredient of foam is air, and it helps to trap warmth inside it. Thus, it works against heat loss. For this reason, people don’t prefer foam beds in the summertime in hot countries.

What Can You Put Over An Air Mattress?

Putting something over the air mattress is an awesome idea and works best for camping to keep the body warm.

Mattress Toppers

This is the thing you can’t reject with any type of mattress. It is of the same importance if you take account of your comfort ability. It is an extra and external layer that is used to change the thickness of the mattress. You can make it firm and soft as per your mattress as well as your choice. It extends the durability of the mattress too, as the pressure is not put directly on the mattress. The Mattress topper is inexpensive compared to the mattress. Putting a topper or sleeping pad air mattress does more work for you like- insulating your body from a cool air mattress and keeps you warm. A memory foam mattress is a fantastic option made for the air mattress especially.

Blankets

You may wonder how a blanket can be an option as it is a large and heavy object. Here blanket means the thermal aluminum blanket that can be fit in your palm when it is folded, and you can easily keep this inside an emergency medical kit or in your camping backpack. Besides the heat of the body, you can use it as a signal for its reflective silver color.

Tips to Stay Warm on an Air Mattress

Sleeping tips on an air mattress that may help you feel warm-

Ensure the proper R-value or insulation

In the first option, you can order an air mattress that has a higher R-value, the higher the value, the better. The R-value means how well the insulation of material can combat heat flow. You can consider the R-value during buying or choose some with a closed-cell design that can trap the heat of your body.

Additionally, you can manage the Insulation in several ways. Using an air mattress riser or camping cot can be a great solution. You can add a thermal blanket, sleeping pad or any substitute to the mattress. Synthetic fillings like polyester or polyamide filling inside the mattress can be another option.

Using External Heating Sources

It is like the heater that we use inside the home or any infrastructure. And you can use the external source of heat on the air mattress too. There are different ways to use the external source like

• Hot water bottle: you can put some hot water bottles near you to beat the cold in the wood.
• Portable heater: there are mini air bed heaters that can work well during camping. You can feel comfortable during sleep.
• Electric blanket: the heating pad is added to the electric blanket. You can use this to combat cool in the camping area during sleeping.

Using Sleeping Bag

A sleeping bag alone for sleeping is not comfortable but just ok for sleep. You can use the sleeping bag as an insulator to move the cold air from the mattress. This is an inexpensive option to use on the air mattress to cut the cold air. There are options of built-in sleeping bags on an air mattress that you may find helpful.

Consider the Placement

When you go to camping, selection of the tent placement is an important job. Placement is a very crucial factor to prevent cold, as not all the spots are prone to the same cool environment. So, you can choose a place with less wood and warmer. For this, you have to choose a place not so deep in the distance. Moreover, make sure the plain surface as the air mattress don’t leak.

An extra layer of cloths and a Balaclava helmet

You can wear an extra layer of clothes inside your main dress to keep yourself warmer. The balaclava helmet or cold headgear is added to be recommended that covers head to chin. It is used for several reasons like in winter, snow skating, winter camping, etc. you can reveal only your eye, or eyes and mouth as per your need. These are the effective ways to stay away from cool on the air mattress. The extra dress and helmet would provide you the complete protection on a cold night. Some people prefer stomach sleeping on an air mattress to prevent cold, but it is not a good way, just wear extra clothes to keep you warm.

You may read: Can a Couple Sleep on a Twin Bed?

FAQ

Is an air mattress good for winter camping?

Air mattress is the best way to make camping comfortable and easy in all seasons. Though alone the air mattress does not help you much on the cold ground, you can avail yourself useful strategies to leverage the cold. You can insulate the mattress in your preferred way, use a camping cot to raise the bed, use a sleeping bag, put on extra clothes, and put some foam or blanket on the mattress, and so on. You cannot have a better sleeping material during camping other than an air mattress.

Can you put a heating pad on an air mattress?

There are several options to put a heating pad or blanket with an air mattress. There are some thermal mattress pads with heat available in the market that are made to go on an air mattress. These must be made safe to use on a mattress to move the cool air inside the mattress. Using a heating pad or electric blanket on an air mattress is not fully safe, you must be over conscious about this. It cannot be wet with water, using it under yourself may cause overheating, damage the coil. So always use a properly tested heating pad, but it is recommended to use it over your body and a blanket.