4 Best Sleeping Bags From Our Weeks of Camping Outdoors

I was sent the long version of REI’s Siesta and it was undoubtedly the comfiest bag I slept in, and if the mission is to sleep well in adverse circumstances the Siesta fits the job darn well, for a few reasons: 

How it feels: First, the liner material strikes a happy balance between smooth enough to let you move around the wide interior but it doesn’t feel cloyingly synthetic. Note that REI used what’s called Bluesign recycled material, which is an oversight body that confirms that a company is trying to go the least toxic, lowest-carbon footprint route to manufacturing and material use. 

This bag’s lining and exterior had the most skin-friendly feeling (followed closely by the North Face One Bag, below), and it very much emulates a home comforter, which I prefer.

The other reason the REI wins is that there’s a flap at your chest that you can flip up to have it park cozily under your neck, providing a baffle that feels a lot like a home duvet, in part because there’s a half zip on one side of the bag in addition to the full-length one. That lets you entirely open up that top section. 

I’m both a back- and side-sleeper and found this arrangement really great because rolling from one to the other and back, I usually find the opening of a sleeping bag wants to slide off my body. Crank closed the zippers and elastic that can tighten the top of a bag will hold it shut—but then you’ll feel entombed. With the REI, on a warmer night, I left the bag partially zipped to vent warm air but still had that cozy quilted top experience that’s more like sleeping beneath a blanket. 

Because it has a draft tube, you never feel the zipper against your body. Handily, that zipper is dual-tracked, so you can turn it to the inside and operate it without putting out an arm on a colder night. Plus, this one never caught on the bag’s liner, since it was designed with a more rigid material between the draft tube and the zipper itself. 

How it packs: If there’s a hang-up it’s that the Siesta doesn’t come with a compression sack, so it doesn’t mash down as much as alternatives, but using The North Face One Bag compression sack I was able to cut about a third of the bulk of the REI model and, yes, you can buy aftermarket compression stuff sacks (we did not evaluate those). 

This is an interesting sleeping bag because it has no zippers. In theory, this is a good idea, especially if you tend to toss in your sleep, as I do. With no zipper and no zipper track, there’s nothing hard to roll over onto. 

How it feels: The top half of the Night Cap 20 has a duvetlike section that you can either tuck up against your body, as you would sleeping under a blanket, or flip it open if you’re a warmer sleeper. Much like the winning REI Siesta Hooded 20, and its baffle section, the experience is a lot more like sleeping under a standard blanket, and because the Sierra Designs bag is very broad at the top, you get a bag that, although it’s shaped a bit like a mummy sack, isn’t as constricting. 

Sleeping in the Night Cap 20 on a few cooler nights, where temperatures fell into the upper 40s, the bag was plenty warm. (I am a warmer sleeper, fyi.) In fact, more than once I opened the top quilt to increase cooling. The one downside of this no-zipper configuration is that you cannot open the entire side of the sack if it’s hot outside. There is a vent at about mid-calf that’s meant to make the Night Cap more comfortable if it’s not cold out, but you’re lying on top of it, so I found this bag is excellent at warmth retention, and very comfy—but less versatile for balmier summer sleeping. 

How it packs: The lack of a zipper makes the Night Cap 20 lighter weight and a lot more compressible, and it stuffs down tight, making it great for hikers or paddlers. 

The One Bag should be thought of as a bed with two comforters. The “bed” is the side on the ground. Dual, color-coded zippers indicate which comforter zips onto which track. Zip the blue comforter onto that base and you have a 40° bag. Unzip that and instead add the orange, 800-fill down quilt and you’re good to a claimed 20 degrees. Add the blue quilt back on top of that, and you’ll survive down to a frigid 5 degrees. FYI: Either the 40- or 20-degree versions of this sleeping bag stuff down to a really petite, backpacker-friendly size. And with the 40-degree quilt, this bag stuffed to the smallest size of any we tested.

How it feels: Mind you, I used the One Bag while backyard camping during an overnight with a balmy low of 63° F and in the upper 40s. For both nights, I zipped on the blue quilt, and for neither did I wake up roasting and sweaty, nor did I get cold when the mercury fell. The mummy shape is a semi-mummy that is reasonably roomy across the shoulders, and a boxed foot well won’t cramp your toes, either. You have to learn to roll with a mummy bag, not try to move inside of it, but once you figure that out, the premium quality of this bag’s lining never felt clammy or sticky, unlike some alternatives I snoozed in.

When it was warmer, it was easy to slide open the zipper to lower the temperature because that zipper has a two-way slider that lets you operate from inside or outside of the bag. Plus the pull on the zipper is a big, open loop, so it’s easier to grab—and it glows in the dark (smart!). The oversized hood is girthsome enough to anchor a full-sized pillow from home, too. But if you forget that while dashing out in an emergency, the stuff sack inverts, and voila, one side of that is finished in a soft, brushed fleece, so you can fill the sack with clothing or if you’re not using one of the quilts, cram that in there to improvise a pillow. 

How it packs: Because of their stuffed dimensions, relatively low weight, versatility, and skin-friendly material, the One Bag and the Sierra Designs Night Cap 20 are the only bags on this list that a backpacker would choose to sleep in for multiple nights. But because it can be configured for balmier weather and stuffs really small, it’s the winner for summer slumbering. 

The MalloMe would provide you with a place to sleep for very little cost. That’s an honest way to couch its “value.” The rest of the experience isn’t so rosy, but it’s still the best value here because… the Coleman’s lining is disgusting (more on that below). Also, the Coleman is wide, but it’s very short, and although the MalloMe shouldn’t be your bag if you’re burly, because it’s just too narrow (go with the REI bag instead), it is long enough for the average six-footer. 

Enumerating the woes first, there was the strong chemical aroma. This faded with airing out, which is recommended by the manufacturer.

How it feels: That unpleasantness extends to how this bag feels. The interior liner is a little clingy, and that’s worse if you happen to sweat in your sleep; I tried it out on a few nights that were balmy, and despite wearing pajamas, I still felt the material sticking to my skin. It’s not nearly as bad as the tricot lining of the Coleman; instead, it has the slickness of 1970s rayon. Worse, the exterior is waterproof, but touching it felt like being in contact with a duvet from a rundown motel.

All that said, there are positives. You can achieve sleep in this bag. It was more comfortable on nights in the mid-50s vs. the mid-60s, and because it has a dual-zip that wraps the toe box, you could unzip the foot end to increase cooling. That zipper is beefy as well, and the pull is girthsome enough to snag mid-slumber and adjust. But, it’s also prone to walking down the length of the bag if you toss and turn. Also, there’s no baffle against it, which means you’ll feel the zipper track against your body—not fun but also not deal-breaking. Just keep your arms on the inside of the MalloMe, so they’re not touching the outside of the bag. 

How it packs: This bag is pretty easy to stuff down tightly, and the generous stuff sack includes compression straps so that you can squeeze the MalloMe into a very handy, portable bundle.

It’s not as unpleasant and short as the Coleman. Barring a natural disaster, I don’t want to sleep inside the MalloMe again.

How it feels: There are several issues with the Brazos, but none is more problematic than the fact that the lining material is abrasive to the touch. The material is super grabby and not remotely soft; it has the effect of sleeping inside a loofah. It tugged at my arm and leg hair, and climbing into the bag while wearing a T-shirt and shorts, the material stuck to my shirt and wouldn’t let go. The solution might have been to peel off the shirt but the lining is so unpleasant to touch that instead, I unzipped the bag as far as I could and switched to a pair of sweatpants halfway through the night so my legs wouldn’t be in contact with the lining. I also put on a pair of socks. Yes, it’s that unpleasant. 

How it packs: Given the price, however, you might be tempted, especially if you’re stacking it vs. the MalloMe. But note that it won’t mush down to nearly the compactness of that bag, and the Brazos presents a battle just to roll it up. There’s a very inadequate tie-down system you’re supposed to use to anchor the bag into a roll before stuffing it into its sack, but the system cannot compress the Brazos nearly enough, so getting it to go back into the bag just about bursts the latter. 

This, despite the fact that Coleman produced a bag that’s nearly a full foot shorter than the MalloMe, and even though I’m 5’ 7”, my feet were in constant contact with the bottom of the Coleman. Plus, with no hood there’s nothing to anchor a pillow in place. Is there a saving grace? Perhaps, because the Brazos is quite warm, and outfits like REI and Cabella’s sell sleeping bag liners, it’s not impossible to retrofit this model to insulate yourself from touching the Brazos’s innards. Still, remember: It’s short, so you’d better be as well. 

Is it warm? Yes, definitely. Again, I didn’t have bone-chilling temperatures during my two weeks of sleeping outside in a tent, but it did dip into the 40s—yet I still left the Bass Pro Shops bag partially unzipped because it’s clearly meant for colder conditions. 

How it feels: It has several limitations. Compared with the REI bag, the Bass isn’t nearly as comfortable. Its fleecy interior is soft to the touch but also a little grabby at clothing, so it’s harder to move around inside. And because it lacks a hood, you can’t rely on the top to hold a pillow in place. The cotton canvas exterior is burlap-like, so you don’t want to touch it with bare skin. And while there’s a zipper draft tube, it’s negligible, meaning that if you wind up sleeping on your side you’ll feel the pressure of the zipper. Plus the zipper itself has a tendency to slide as you roll around during the night; I woke up more than once with the bag totally unzipped. 

Unlike other bags on this list, the toe end of the Bass model isn’t boxed, which means if you sleep on your back your toes are under pressure from the weight of the cover, and the only way to create comfort is by either unzipping the bag entirely or sleeping in another position. 

How it packs: Lastly, while three straps are tied into the foot of the bag and enable you to roll it up and anchor it into an oval, this is a very bulky and heavy sleeping bag, so it’s not even a great option for car campers. 

For my part, I tried these bags on multiple nights over the course of a few weeks while sleeping in a tent in my backyard. I wanted to be comfortable and evaluate factors like how well the bags emulated sleeping in a bed, whether I could toss and turn easily enough without being constrained, whether the material felt comfortable or coarse against my skin, and whether there was room for my pillow from home. 

Also, since these bags are meant to offer just-in-case versatility, we also looked at how easy or difficult it was to roll them up or push them back into their stuff sacks. Because even if a bigger bag might seem like it would be more comfortable (we didn’t find that precise correlation), if it’s too huge then it’s going to become a burden to haul around and dash out of the house with. Not to mention, if you need several for your family, you don’t want a bag that’s massive.