Beds & Mattresses

Self-Inflating Mats: The Genuine Cold-Weather Option

A self-inflating mat has an open-cell foam core that draws air in through a built-in valve, and it's the trapped, still air inside that foam doing the actual insulating, not the air mattress underneath. Our Weisshorn self-inflating range is built this way from high-density polyurethane foam, with an anti-slip base and a connectable design that lets you button multiple mats together for a bigger sleeping area, and the maker markets it as suited to year-round use. If you're actually sleeping on cold ground on a cooler-season trip, this foam-core construction is the genuine pick over a plain air mattress.

Step-Inflating and Standard Air Mattresses: Comfort First, Insulation Second

A standard air mattress is filled with air that circulates freely inside it, and circulating air cools to whatever the ground temperature is, which makes it a fine choice for a warm-weather camp or as a spare bed at home, but a poor one for a cold night. Our raised Intex and Bestway airbeds, some with a built-in pump and sizes up to queen, are built firmly in this comfort-first mould rather than for backcountry insulation. Sitting between the two is our step-inflating mat, a thicker foam-core design (12cm at the body, 15cm at the headrest) that its maker rates for 3-season use, a genuine middle ground for anglers who want more cushioning than a thin self-inflating mat without stepping all the way up to a dedicated four-season setup.

Two Trip-Specific Options: Car Mattresses and Elevated Cots

A car mattress is built to fit snugly across a vehicle's back seat or boot space, which sidesteps the ground-temperature question entirely since you're sleeping inside the vehicle rather than on the dirt beneath it, a genuinely useful option for a 4WD river-access trip where the vehicle itself is your camp. An elevated cot, part of our camp furniture range, lifts you off the ground on a frame instead, which is worth having for wet or uneven ground, but it's worth knowing the breathable surface that makes a cot comfortable in warm weather is also why it's marketed by its maker mainly for summer use: with open air beneath a breathable surface rather than a foam layer in contact with the ground, a cot can lose more heat on a genuinely cold night than a self-inflating mat does, not less, despite feeling like the more premium option.

The Most Common Mistake

The mistake that catches most people out isn't really about the mat at all. It's about where they assume the cold is coming from. Even ground that doesn't feel especially cold to stand on draws heat from a sleeping body efficiently through direct contact, and the insulation in a sleeping bag is compressed to close to nothing under body weight, so the loft that traps warm air simply isn't there once you're lying on it. The surface underneath you, not the bag, is what actually stops that heat loss, and anglers who grab whichever air mattress or cot is cheapest for an inland, high-country or shoulder-season Australian trip often end up blaming an expensive sleeping bag for a cold night when the real gap was underneath them the whole time.