Underquilt needed under your head for winter use or not?

[Passinthru]

I don't find wearing extra clothing in bed to be very comfortable.
I use a New River Long in my bridge hammock that covers from head to foot and even wraps up on each end a little bit.
Sometimes I bring an arm up to cradle my head - sometimes I don't use a pillow - but no matter the position I have no cold areas.

[jacob8806]

I am struggling to find my happy balance in this regard. I have tried using my underquilt from shoulders down, but next time I am covering my head as well.

[Floridahanger]

Remember your expected temps will be different than those the rest of us experience from time to time.

For me, in Florida, the coldest I have been in was 23*F. I used a synthetic partial UQ(shoulder's covered, not head), a beanie and 2 hoodies with a fleece covered inflatable pillow. I was warm. I have been cool without the pillow at 25*F same cover for head.

If I got a down UQ, I would go with a full UQ for teens and lower. That's me. 20's and up, I have been successful with partial UQ and would get a 20*F down partial UQ. Again, for me.

[michigandave]

I use a JRB Greylock 4 zero degree UQ. It's partial length and I had it down to -13f. I've got a down and fur hat plus I put a spare down puffy coat behind my head and shoulders. Along with a foot pad, I'm toasty warm.

[BillyBob58]

Well, it just all depends on what other means- if any- you use and how far you are pushing your UQ, doesn't it. As always, there are a lot of ways to skin a cold cat.

However, at least in my experience, at some point you are going to need even more insulation under your head than under your feet. If using say a torso length 20*F UQ at well above 20F, some folks might not need anything under their feet at 60 or 50 maybe even 40F, but at some point you are going to need a pad under those feet. I think even more so for your head, if you are going to push that 20F UQ all the way to 20F, and even more so with a 0F as you approach 0.

So if you are counting on several inches of loft under your back at various temps, well sometime you can get by with just a poorly compressing fleece hat. But again as I go colder the time comes when I need every bit as much insulation under my head as I do my back. (feet seem to get by with less). I remember back when I established the lower limit for my WB Yeti style Climashield UQ using just 1 layer of 2.5 oz/sq/yd CS under me. Once it got near dawn, I was just on the verge of feeling a little cool in the mid-hi 40s. Not bad enough to bother me, but not toasty either, and I felt that I was at the absolute limit. Then I remembered I had a fleece hat in the WB shelf(I was just wearing cotton jeans and T shirt in a 40+ bag as quilt). I put that rascal on and went back to sleep for several hours, now nice and toasty. So that hat made a big difference. You can loose a lot of heat through your head! (I do not remember if I was using a pillow, but even if I was it did not help with heat loss from the top of my head. But adding just the fleece hat made a noticeable difference.

Still, it was only in the 40s. But, if I had been using a 20F or zero UQ and a warmer TQ, could I have got by just fine without even the hat? Maybe. OTOH, if I had been using a 20F or 0F UQ at those respective temps instead of hi 40s, would that fleece hat have been enough? I am betting not, and it might make a big enough difference to keep me from being warm at zero even with zero rated quilts. Still, many of us use pillows(maybe foam) along with a hat. And depending on the pillow, it might be enough to make up for no UQ loft under your head.

I really love that torso sized CS Yeti. But I do think that one of the reasons I always had such an easy time being warm with a PeaPod was the fact that I had equal thickness of insulation under my head and even over my head and face depending on how much top vent I allowed. There were times when- even in the 30s or lower- when I felt my head was actually overheating and would have to adjust for more vent, or shift some of the down away from that area. But if it was actually needed, I could have full loft on every side of my head with just a quarter sized vent right over my mouth/nose. I also learned that if my head/face was toasty warm it was highly unlikely I would be cold anywhere else, also leading to toasty feet.

Same thing(except no top of head or face insulation, need a separate hood for that) with my JRB MW UQs and bridge hammocks. I have a full length MW4 and a convertible model MW3 that has a long and short mode. Either way, I always have full thickness insulation under my head. I think it contributes to the great results I have had with those quilts, and as Passinthru said, it also helps if I want to cradle an arm/hand under my head. So I think full loft under your head can help a lot, but there are other ways to accomplish the same thing. A well insulated pillow for example.

[AScott]

I use a pillow stuffed with climashield and a JRB Greylock 4 partial UQ all winter (I use the pillow year round, really). I've been down to -10F with that and a polar fleece beanie and have never been cold. I think if you use a pillow. the partial is fine. If you don't use a pillow, you may need a full length UQ.