Machka 

I have several inflatable pillows I take with me on tours, but I have never been 100% happy with them. Inflatable pillows tend to be small, hard, inflexible, and they like to slide away in the night ... especially if you've got a couple of them stacked on top of each other. So now, I'm considering other options. I have an idea of something that might work ... but I'm wondering ...


What do you use for a pillow?

dcrowell

Clothing in a pillowcase. It's not ideal, but it works, and the price is right. May smell funny after a few days.

prathmann

I usually have some fleece clothing along (pants and/or jacket) to wear on cool nights. I take a bunch of my other clothes, wrap them inside the fleece item and use the whole bundle as a pillow.

Machka 

I've tried the 'clothing pillow' method, and have not been too fond of that either. For one thing, I've toured when the nighttime temperatures drop low enough that I put just about everything I owned on in order to stay warm ... not much left for a pillow.

valygrl

Clothing in a stuff sack.

prathmann

Sounds like you could use a warmer sleeping bag. I've been comfortable in mine down to about 0 F without any clothing. It's a down bag with one lb. of fill and a total weight of two lbs. so it doesn't add too much to my touring load and compresses very small. BTW, the 0 F nights were on backpacking trips - I usually limit my bike-packing to warmer weather.

cyccommute 

I'm finding that with nearly all things camping, Big Agnes has the answer. The Sleeping Giant works very well for me. Since I use a Big Agnes bag, I have a pocket to put the pillow in. I usually fold the pillow in half too.

LeeG

my arm

Cyclebum

Stuff sack with stuff in it. Just make sure to bring enough stuff.

BWF

With so many sleeping bag brands on the market, it would seem logical that someone would start sewing in some extra down to create a built-in pillow. I use a Cloudrest Pillow from Western Mountaineering. It adds 5 ounces of weight to my gear, but I just regard it as extra insulation in my sleep system. Very comfy to sleep on...

https://www.westernmountaineering.com...s&ContentId=45

fietsbob

I kept one I got from Amtrak.. 'Coast Starlight', only arrived 6 hours late..

mulveyr 

Exped Air Pillow. It's the only one I found that doesn't slide, the firmness is easy to adjust, and the shape works well for side-sleepers like me.

zzOtherlandzz

I'm still a big time noob to the touring thing.. I've only been on 2 overnight test rides. But... The first overnight trip I didn't sleep very well at all. Being a side sleeper I found that the camping pillow I got was just NOT big enough. So for the second overnight trip I went to k-mart and bought a $10 fluffy regular sized pillow. Its not very heavy, but squished up it still is a bit bulky. But I slept a LOT LOT better that second night. Just .02 worth from a touring noob..

pasopia

+1 on the exped air. I love mine.

Machka 

“They” should make a sleeping bag with a pocket/insert area at the head of the bag into which sleeping bag users could insert an inflatable pillow. That would keep the pillow in place and there would be a layer of fill over the pillow to make it softer. Or sleeping bag users could insert clothing or towels or a bit of foam or whatever they happened to have.

Given that our sleeping bags don’t have that feature (or do they?? I might have to look) I wonder how easy or difficult it might be to add a pillow pocket.


Another option might be to make a pillow case for the inflatable pillows. Rowan has been talking about doing that for his.

But I'm thinking that if I were to make a pillow case for my inflatable pillows, I might be inclined to add a pocket (similar to the sleeping bag pillow pocket mentioned above) on one side in which to insert a thin foam square, or bubble wrap, or a towel, or whatever’s handy to make the pillow softer and larger.


I'm a side or back sleeper who needs a higher pillow, and one inflatable pillow just doesn't do it.

wahoonc

I have used small camp pillows but the one that worked the best for me was taking a regular bed pillow and cutting it in half, then sewing the remains back together. I kept it in a small compression sack.

Aaron

Machka 

We actually have small bed pillows which we've used when car camping. They're a little smaller than half the size of a normal bed pillow. But I'm not sure how well they would squish down.

We're now talking about paying a visit to the local Spotlight (like a Michaels) to see what we might be able to put together or just to gather some ideas.

staehpj1

I found that a regular pillow that was about 1/4 the size of a bed pillow works great and squishes down small enough to fit in the stuff sack with any of my synthetic sleeping bags. I am sure it would also fit in a tiny stuff sack by itself. I got one at a fabric store for about $6 or so.

I tried a number of camp pillows and they tended to be over priced and not comfortable.

I have since taken to using a down vest as a pillow, but it is a little skimpy.

BigAura

I carry a small fleece pillow case and stuff it with my down vest. Well worth the 2.5 ounces IMO.

VT_Speed_TR

I use to use a nylon stuff sack stuffed with clothes method for many years, but it was always sliding around during the night. Last year I found the Therm-a-Rest pillow stuff sack. Its a light weight, water resistant stuff sack that is lined in fleece. During the day its holds all my clothes, at night I turn it inside out and stuff some clothes in it and I have a nice, soft pillow. And now the fleece doesn't slid around. Dual purpose item.

wiiiim

i usually stuff the little bag from my sleeping bag with my jacket or fleece

Rob_E

This may not be helpful for tent camping, but I have a small pillow from Arrowhead Equipment for use in my hammock. It packs down in a stuff sack and has a tether to keep it from wandering off, but in a hammock the tether keeps it in basically the same place because gravity is pulling it the other way. On a flat, tent floor, it might not be as useful. For my use, I got the small size, and it's great. On the ground, a larger size would probably be better because you don't have the benefit of the slope of the hammock or the give of the material under you. I don't have much experience with inflatable pillows, but it's hard for me to imagine that they'd be terribly comfortable compared to a "real" pillow. If sleeping comfort is compromised (and it sounds like it is) then I'd look to see if there was space enough for an actual, filled pillow.

Alternatively, I seem to remember that at some point on The Path Less Pedaled or the Epicurean Cyclist, Russ discussed the merits of several inflatable pillow options, so that might be worth a look.

BigBlueToe

I used a stuff sack with clothes for years. The results were mixed, but never very good. Some nights were better than others, depending on what I stuffed it with, and how things arranged themselves inside during the night.

My next attempt was to neatly fold some things - a t-shirt, a towel - and fold my fleece vest on top. This was better. There were no lumps, and the fleece was comfy against my head, but there wasn't much cushioning.

Finally I bought a Thermarest pillow

It's soft fleece on one side, it's light, it's just enough cushioning, and it rolls up pretty small. I still have to fold my towel and put the pillow on it to get the right height, but it's worth it. I'm very comfortable!

cyccommute 

The Big Agnes pillow stuffs inside my 6"x18" stuff sack with the bag and my sleeping pad. It's all in the lime green bag on the back of my bike



The little pouch it comes in is 7"x9"x3" but it squishes down even smaller. Because it's inflatable, I find it more comfortable than filled pillows out on the road. Those tend to be more ear muffs for me than supporting my head.

dcrowell

Although it wasn't a tour, I did take my regular pillow with me once on an overnight trip. I wasn't carrying as much, so I had room, but yeah, it took up a lot of space. Squished down as far as it would go, it still took up the majority of a medium pannier.