Comfort vs "Restful" sleep??

[Gary_R]

It take's me longer to fall asleep in a hammock most of the time. and I tend to wake more. But I agree I always feel more rested in the morning.

[Acer]

When I get in a hammock,,and get my angle and sweet spot located,,and that only takes a moment or two,,wow,,,I fall asleep and a bomb could go off,,other nite my wife walked into the whoopie sling going to the bathroom about 3:30am and I never felt the rocking and rolling..(I had it stretched up in the living room,,lol) Outside,,its even better,,,the other nite,,wife looked out the window,,3 deer walked within 15ft of me hanging in the front yard,,and motion detector lights were on,,I was asleep then full bore,,now when I wake earlie in the mornings and my normal wake up call is 5am for work,,been a couple of mornings on weekends outside,,I have slept in till 7:30am and I never sleep in or past 5 am no matter how much I work..I get my best sleep in a hammock and as deep a sleep as you can possibly get..I have a slipped disc in the lower back,,and never a pain either in the back when I am in a hammock,,my bod feels so refreshed and ready go all day long...I hate to say but the hammock is getting habit forming..

[olddog]

I think I hear some wannabe fulltimers. When I hit the hammock every night I push off on the corner of the dresser and by the time the rocking stops, I'm gone. About 4 months now and hope I never have to go back to a bed.

[deerfu]

My sleep has much improved since moving to the hammock. spent the night w/my gf Friday and it took me a couple of hours to fall asleep. Back in my hammock on Saturday (outside this time) and was asleep very quickly. I did however forget my uc and had to make an extra blanket work. Got down to 53 here and I slept like a baby

[BillyBob58]

Well, yes and no, it depends.

Even though I did not know what I was doing plus did not know how to keep warm, from my first night both in a hammock which was first night in a hammock on the trail, I slept profoundly deep and restfully, and went to sleep pretty quickly. But in all these 1st nights on the trail, I was pretty exhausted. Pretty much the same on all my other trips. After a day on the trail, I crawl into my hammock and pass out and mostly stay that way until forced to get up. I have been known to sleep to 10 am more than once. In fact, on the most recent trip, the 2 old guys were getting up at 10 AM ( after going to bed pretty early) and then having to force the young guy to get up 30 or 40 minutes later!

OTOH, I usually just can not fall asleep in my backyard.

The few times I have slept in a hammock in my house, I have had no trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep.

But if I am in a strange sleeping environment ( aka backyard) PLUS the added strangeness of a hammock vs bed PLUS not really tired PLUS unusual noises, sleep is probably not happening. 1st night on the trail will likely be that way also if I am not tired enough.

[Law Dawg (ret)]

Years of wierd shift work and mandatory high attention span (or maybe not survive to retirement) type work has made me a very light sleeper. With the hammock I found it took several times before I could sleep well the night through. Mind you, "well" means only waking up a couple of times a night...as in wide awake. Even the short sleep in a hammock is better than the same in a tent. I'm hoping retirement will gradually allow me to unwind more.

Physically the hammock allows a MUCH more comfortable sleeping position and morning kinks are gone. I also like the ability to see outside for when things go bump in the night. Like BB58, I cannot rest or sleep outside in the city even in our suburb gotta be in the piney woods and that would be no different in my tent. Might have much to do with knowing what crawls the streets in our neighborhoods...nothing good happens after midnight.

[FLRider]

I sleep like the dead, pretty much regardless of where I sleep.

On an average night, I might wake up once or twice if there're noises occurring around me that I don't recognize as normal. I might not, too.

I find that I tend to sleep less on the trail (~6 hours versus ~8) or car camping than I do at home, also regardless of whether I sleep in a tent or hammock. However, I wake feeling much less sore in a hammock--and certainly covered in less sweat (I'm an extremely hot sleeper compared to most). I'm still stiff in the morning; too many years of throwing myself off of high places for fun ensures that one. But, while I'm stiff, I'm not as sore as I would be sleeping on the ground.

That, plus the lack of sweat, makes hammocking just about perfect for me. Let alone what it does to reduce insect encounters and my pack weight...

[lymphocytosis]

The two biggest things I've noticed about switching to hammocks is a) I don't wake up feeling sore and b) I need to pee in the night more often than I do on the ground. Not sure why about that second one.

[Cannibal]

zukiguy, I gotta ask; what were the 'noobs' using for insulation? That's a bunch of hammocks and I didn't hear much about insulation beyond your underquilt. Even then, you said you woke early in the morning with a bit of CBS. So, I'm wondering if your fitful sleeping is a result of an insulation system that isn't quite measuring up. I know the times I've been caught with less than ideal insulation, I don't sleep deeply. Same thing as you described; sleep, wake-up, change positions, sleep. Worth a thought anyhow.

I sleep very deeply in a hammock. So deep that I have had to start putting alarm systems in the last couple of houses because it takes a lot to wake me these days. I spent most of my life as an extremely light sleeper; the flushing of a toilet on the other end of the house would wake me. Now, Genuine Draft claims she works for a minute or so to wake me up.

[Doctari]

MAYBE, the key for YOU is "I put my earplugs in I sleep like the dead."

But, Yea, for me, at least last time I remember (It's been years) In bed, I'm usually asleep as soon as my pillow hits my head, or the other way around. Often in the hammock I lay there for quite a while before falling to sleep, & like you, wake up quite a bit thru the night. Sometimes for me, the earplugs do help, even though most nights it's quiet,,,, well, quiteISH. And I know to not sleep in the back yard during the nearby festival (Last weekend, 1/2 mile away & you can hear it from 2 miles away ) & 4th of July.

And, when hiking, I don't care where I'm sleeping, at least at first. Usually I push way too hard & far so sleep like I'm dead the first hour or so, but when on the ground I always wake up sore & grouchy. When sleeping in the hammock, I'm not sore, but am grouchy that I got to leave my comfy nest. As I am the one I'm mad at, it usually passes quickly.