To save weight, do you sleep in your hiking clothes, or do you have a special set of clothes to sleep in, like camping pajamas?

Hiking clothes + any insulating layers if they are required to extend the range of the sleep system on cold nights.

Exceptions:

i like to have a balaclava or beanie available, even if i didn't need it on the trail, just in case. Not much hair up there (either shaved or buzzed, but thinning quite a bit anyways) and my head gets cold.

sleep socks. often just a spare pair of socks which i change into and then may also place a pair of damp trail socks over them to dry them (or place the damp trail socks on my chest). sometimes, when it's colder, a dedicated pair of down socks are worn over my sleep socks - i really hate cold feet; it wakes me up.

Edited by pj on 12/14/2006 11:33:06 MST.

Last summer I hiked from Sonora Pass to Tuolumne Meadows and went to sleep in wet/clean clothes each night. Specifically, I put on my damp/clean underwear and shirt before bed, plus dry sleep socks, dry pants, and a dry Micropuff. By morning my clothes were always bone dry, even when the temperatures dropped below freezing and I camped well after sunset. I can not say that I was comfortable at night prior to falling asleep, but I wasn't cold and didn't have to change into cold/stinky clothes in the morning.

Whatever I was wearing. Bikes shorts are fine for 3-4 days as long as you don't take them off :grin:

More than one set of clothes while hiking? Faux paux! Two sets of socks if you're doing big miles but that's about as "clean" as I get.

Nothing special here. I sleep in whatever I had to put on to stay warm before I went to bed. The quilt goes over that, if I'm not already wearing it.

My three season layers are:
Head: nylon sun hat, fleece balaclava hat.
Torso: wool hoody, hooded windshirt, synthetic insulation.
Legs: wool briefs, wool long underwear, nylon pants.
Feet: shoes, wool socks (2 pair, only wearing 1).

I've debated bringing sleeping socks, but I haven't felt the need yet.

My winter layers are in a state of flux and my experience level is low so I haven't included them. It largely boils down to, thicker versions of the above.

I sleep in long underwear.

I can rinse my hiking clothes and they mostly dry overnight.

I don't feel safe when I do not have dry clothes.

I carry three pair of socks. One pair stays dry and the other two are rotated daily. I also carry three pairs of gloves in the winter.

Except for extra underwear and socks I can wear all my clothes at the same time.

Edited by food on 12/14/2006 13:45:51 MST.

Most of my trips are just one or maybe two nights, so I never pack more clothes than needed to stand on a peak for 5 minutes. I rarely would have any extras of anything, and for sleeping I usually just crawl in the bag with everything still on (minus shoes, fleece for a pillow). I had wet socks last time in 20F and kept them on and they were bone dry in the morning, wasn't expecting that!

I generally end up with dedicated sleepwear. The reason, however, isn't because I don't want to wear wet clothes to bed. Most of the time I sleep in a Patagonia silkweight long underwear and a long sleeve lightweight or microweight merino wool top. These are usually too hot to hike in, so I'll use either a short sleeve merino T or hiking shirt during the day.

I put insulation and wind suit over my clothes for all seasons. No changing into a different base layer.

Head- put on 100 wt fleece balaclava and montane lightspeed hood (nunatak down balaclava added in winter)
Torso- put on insulated vest/jacket and montane lightspeed windshirt
Legs- put on montane featherlite pant
Feet- take off socks and put on 200 wt fleece socks

I sleep naked most of the time (with my clothes tucked into the bottom of my mummy bag) unless it is winter, late fall or very early spring... then I sleep in what I was wearing when I headed for bed. In winter I also wear socks and a toque (Canadian for winter hat) to bed.

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 12/14/2006 16:51:13 MST.

I usually carry bottom long johns and sleep in those, as I cannot stand sleeping in a tight cut mummy with my legs pressed together. In summer, if it is hot, I just sleep in my shorts. Usually I wear a tank top under my hiking shirt, so often I sleep in that also. That and the layer of clothing keeps my sleeping bag a lot cleaner inside.
In winter, I many time sleep with my down jacket on, inside my bag, with hat, liner gloves and down socks on.

Every peice of clothing I have, wet or dry, with the exception of dirty pairs of spare socks.

I don't like waking up cold at night and having to disrupt my sleep for several minutes to throw on more clothes...so I start out with everything on and just lay my quilt over myself loosely, tucking it in tighter if I get cold.

A change of dry, warm clothing is one of the so-called 10 Essentials. I use my sleeping/camp clothing for that, so it does double duty. This consists of:
wool socks - 1 pair
balaclava - 1
silk scarf (to cover face and nose) - 1
wool/silk base layer top - 1
wool/silk base layer bottom - 1

In cold weather, I don't sleep in the clothing I hiked in. In moderate weather, I may sleep in my day clothing if I have washed it and it is getting a little dry - so it will dry out overnight... the old sleeping bag/clothes dryer trick. In warm weather, I wear the long underwear to keep my sleeping rig clean and to keep from sticking to it.

I sleep in my hiking clothes + camp insulation. Since the outside of the insulation stays clean this keeps my bag clean. I always change into dry socks (Possumdown). However, if my nylon hiking shorts are soaking wet when I go to bed then I usually take them off rather than bring that much moisture into my bag.

Edited by Otter on 12/14/2006 19:57:52 MST.

Generally, I just sleep in my hiking clothes. The one exception is a warm, dry pair of sleep socks. A couple of times I wished for an extra base layer but survived O.K. without it.

(WildChild) spaketh: I sleep naked.....

TMI!!
TMI!!!
TMI!!!!
TMI!!!!!
too much information!

I don't bring camping pjs.. but on some trips I will have a an additional base layer that mostly gets worn at night. If the weather turns colder than I expect, the "sleeping" base layer gets used for extra warmth during the day. I have found that powerdry dries quickly enough that I don't worry about carrying "dry" clothing for camp. My trips are almost always less than 8 days, so I don't worry about getting my quilt/bag dirty cause I can clean them when I get back home if they need it.

Hot: I typically use a supplex shirt which I don't like sleeping in. I bring a featherweight base which I sleep in or wear if it is surprisingly cool during the day. I will typically sleep in my hiking pants, or just briefs depends on temps and how dirty the pants are.

Modest: Sleep and wear a Sekri Level 1 zip-neck base layer shirt made from Polartec Power Dry with X-static. Sleeping in my hiking pants.

Cool/Cold: I typically sleep in my hiking clothing, sometimes with additional clothing to keep me warm in the face of the night time temps.

--Mark

Lots of people sleep nekked! What's the big deal?
In summer I sleep W/ only a "nighttime" T shirt.
In winter it's long johns, head/face gear & heavy sox.
In spring fall it's light long johns to keep my bag cleaner.

All sleeping clothing is for sleeping only OR emergency clothing if other clothing gets soaked.
I like to sleep clean.
When I worked as a professional trail builder on the Snow Creek section of the Pacific Crest Trail in '80 I took a bath EVERY night.
Eric

Edited by Danepacker on 01/12/2007 21:11:35 MST.