Rob, one of the "Camping Forum Guys" said the best way to keep warm in the colder months was to  "Stay at Home and watch TV". Rob was joking of course and relishes a challenge whatever the weather but he might have a valid point if you find yourself waking at 3am shivering in your sleeping bag.

This is exactly what happened to us, it was early May and we'd gone away for 2 nights to test out The Outwell Carolina-3 we'd brought the weekend before. We weren't serious campers but did enjoy a week or two camping in the summer and assumed the equipment we had was adequate for anything. At the time I didn't even realise a sleeping bag had different season ratings and couldn't understand why we woke up shivering in the early hours, little did I know there was almost a science behind the sleeping equipment for camping.

On returning home I made it my mission to find out why we'd felt so cold and see how I could improve our camping experience. We'd got the bug and camping in just the summer wasn't going to cut the grain any more.

Lack of experience and using incorrect equipment had been our downfall and I planned to arm myself with knowledge and get the correct gear to suit our environment.

The equipment used when we were so ill prepared were £5 sleeping Bags zipped together and a double Air Bed all from a supermarket, other than a cover that we threw over the sleeping bags that was it.

It didn't take long into my research before I realised the Sleeping Bags were of a very cheap quality and not much better than thick Sleeping Bag Liners.

The first thing to consider when buying a sleeping bag is when you plan to use it. If its just the summer months in the UK then a 2 season bag will be fine, but if you're planning to use it from Easter through to  Autumn you need to be looking at a 3 or 4 season Bag. Most give an indication of season rating and below is a guide to performance. The 5 season bag (sometimes known as 4+ season) is a technical bag for extremely cold climates and often too hot for the UK on a normal night.

• 1 season = summer +5
• 2 season = spring/summer 0
• 3 season = spring to Autumn -5
• 4 season = winter -10
• 5 season = expedition -15

Ratings

In Europe, the EN 13537 standard normalizes the temperatures at which a sleeping bag can be used. A test, relying on a heated mannequin, provides four temperatures: 

• Upper limit (maximum temp average man gets good night sleep without sweating)  
• Comfort (where an average woman gets a good nights sleep) 
• Lower limit (where an average man gets a good night sleep) 
• Extreme (this setting is only intended for use by Bear Grylls & Chuck Norris)

Forget about extreme, this is a survival only rating, you wouldn't sleep cosy at the extreme temperature displayed on the bag but you would possibly survive the night.

My advice is steer closer to the Comfort rating, the higher you get this, the warmer you will be in the colder months, however pay attention to the upper limit, if this falls because you've gone for a higher comfort rating, the bags might be to hot for the summer months. I find having two bags serves well. We have 2 Royal Umbria 50oz Bags for the colder months zipped together to make a double bag (its not possible to make a double out of mummy bags)  and for the warmer months we have a Vango Escape Double.

Basically there are two styles of sleeping bags on the market, rectangular and Mummy. There are some newer style sleeping bags brought out by Gelert known as Sleeping Pods, they are similar in design to rectangular bags (often called square bags), but they offer more room for people who like to spread out whilst keeping the warmth trapped in the bag.
Rectangular are the traditional sleeping bags, with a zip down one side and the bottom, allowing two bags to be unzipped and joined together to make a double sleeping bag and these bags tend to give more freedom of movement.
Mummy style sleeping bags follow the contours of your body allowing for less air to be trapped and therefore more thermally efficient. They usually come with hoods that have drawstrings to pull tight round the head and even drawstrings inside the bag to pull tight round the chest to keep heat in, these bags are generally very restrictive by design.

As mentioned we used an air-bed on our first camping trip in the colder months and whilst this is fine one of the critical mistakes we made was to place the air-bed directly on the tents sewn in groundsheet (SIG). During the first part of the night whilst the ground was cooling below us, our body heat was warming the loft inside the sleeping bags and the air inside the air-bed and all was fine. As the night grew colder and the ground got colder it started to draw the heat from the air-bed and in turn from the sleeping bags and as such we would wake up freezing cold around 3am each morning. Whilst using an Air-bed is fine, the golden rule is to use an Insulated Mat below the bed to insulate from the cold floor and prevent the ground from stealing the heat away. I don't use Air-beds any more, we did have the Coleman's Comfort Double Bed and found it to be one of the more reliable beds.

There are many types of sleep mats available ranging from just a few pounds up into the hundred pounds. Simple foam mats can be used as insulators under air-beds, but are not soft enough to offer much comfort on there own. Investing in a good quality self inflating mat like the Multimat Camper Double 50 would be all you needed to put your sleeping bag on for a good nights sleep as they have there own insulating properties from the cold ground. After our last air bed developed a hole we decided to give the Multimat Camper Double 50 a go and we havn't looked back.

Finally, Top Tips for a good nights sleep.....

• Make sure your bag has an adequate temp rating for your conditions.
• Avoid buying a cheap bag that guarantees to keep you warm below zero, that figure actually relates to the amount of hours you will be sleeping.
• Place a sleeping mat under any air-bed.
• Keep your feet warm with a hot water bottle on cold nights.
• Wear a hat and maybe even a Neck Gaiter
• Do not put on too many layers, long underwear is insulating enough to keep your skin warm but thin enough to allow heat to escape your body into the loft of the sleeping bag and thus keeping you warm.
• Do not go to bed dehydrated, a hot chocolate should help keep you warm. Food is energy and will keep you heated during the night so don't go to bed hungry.

The advice only touches on the basics, but should help make any first attempt at sleeping under canvas in the cold more fun. There is still much more to know as a haven't mentioned heaters by Gas or Electric (where electricity is an option). Nor have I mentioned camp beds, I have never used them for camping, but I understand from people who have that they are a good choice. Once you've decided on your sleeping options consider this the basic information to help delve deeper into your precise sleeping requirements.

Any feedback, further information or if there's anything you don't understand, then please feel free to leave your comments or come chat with us at The Camping Forum, we really are a friendly bunch and love to meet new friends novice and old pros alike.