How long before I can sleep?

[PappyAmos]

so you can't hear folks complaining about your snoring....or was it me they were yelling at to stop snoring

As if you don't know!

Regards to the Terminator - true expert on your "night noises!"

[Oldbusparts]

The first night woke up every hour or 2. took a nap that afternoon in it. Second night woke up with cold but, had to get up and put a short ridge rest in, slept OK. took a Nap again in the afternoon. Third night slept almost all night, woke up with the back sides of my arms like ice. Finally got everything right after that. Next three nights slept great. A week at camp with a bunch of scouts. Got 6 of the boys to sleep in Hammocks. Now I climb in and I am out in just a few minutes.

[keg]

I'm a side sleeper and tend towards the anxious so I set up my hammock at home and started napping in it before using it in the woods the first time. Add in a strenuous trip and all was good first time out in the woods.

Practice - getting used to something new takes time for some. Now it doesn't seem to matter exactly how I set the ridge line or the exact angle, I have problems staying awake. Usually I hop in my hammock in the afternoon to read and find myself waking up after an hours long nap or waking up in the morning closing my eyes for a second and suddenly it's lunch time.




And I don't see why everyone complains about snoring. I never wake myself up.

[dirkomatic]

You might try making your ridge line longer on the hammock. As a side sleeper I found that the longer length worked better for me. YMMV

As a side sleeper, I agree with this. I ended up doing the same thing... And I curl my legs up a little.

[JMBdevotee]

I'm still fairly new to sleeping in a hammock and for me it took about 5 nights, none of them consecutive. The first night I slept about as well as I would typically sleep in my old tent & sleeping pad setup. I wake up, roll on my side and it would take me a bit to go back to sleep. By the 5th night out I had a better nights sleep than I ever had on the ground in a tent. I believe part of it was getting past the thought of "can I get a good nights sleep in a hammock?" As long as you have a hammock that is comfortable and setup for you, I don't think it will be long before you are sleeping soundly.

[craige]

Unless I'm absolutely knackered or have had a few drinks I struggle to sleep the first night. I usually just don't sleep very much the night before if I'm going backpacking, partly to make the first nights sleep come easy and partly because I'm usually disorganised and leave packing/food prep to the last minute. A bigger problem for me is getting out of the cosy hammock in the morning when you have 20 miles to walk that day

[Atlas918]

Sleeping in a hammock takes some practice. It is a completely new sensation in a new environment that your body has to get used to. I don't sleep well the first couple of nights in my hammock. I just say though, it is still better than sleeping on the ground.

[bodhran4me]

I put something(sweater, blanket, pants...whatever) between my knees and/or use a fold of the hammock material under my topmost knee. I position my pillow to hold the fabric/netting away from my face. If it is cod then i am positioned with the fabric in my face but if it is warm then I move further over so the netting is in my face.

[sidneyhornblower]

Silversurfer and campdavid give good advice. Practice, because it is going to take some time to learn how to sleep in a hammock. And part of that practice involves lying there not thinking about the fact that you're not asleep yet.

Maybe try napping first and then move on to sleeping. Somebody in this thread suggested that and it's also good advice.

[twandawg85]

One of the problems I had at first was just moving. I to am a side sleeper and have a similar ritual (well mine isn't as ritualistic I just have to switch sides once or twice...and on throughout the night)

At first I had a hard time switching sides in the hammock. It took to much to flip and by the time I was on my other side I was fully awake again.

Two things changed when I started sleeping better.

1) I quit being so delicate with the hammock (well as delicate as a 6'6" 330lb man can be) the fabric is pretty tough and and I quit worrying about putting to much stress on it when I moved.

2) after moving around a while it just got easier to flip and became more muscle memory (like flipping over in your bed is). Now I can easily turn however I want without waking myself up.