Feelings about sleeping in tents?

Ours has screen sides and since we live in the tropics the flaps are always up. I love lying there on the cot and looking up at the stars. Usually we are very far from any kind of light pollution and there are more stars than I could ever have imagined. Of course I also like having my laptop there to watch a dvd in case I get tired of looking at the stars. Camping on the beach is one of my favorites too, I love listening to the waves.

The only thing I don’t like about tents is waking up covered in sweat in the bazillion degree heat in the morning because the damn thing turns into a greenhouse in the sun.

I usually sleep outside by the fire on a mat or in my own makeshift shelter when I camp. I’m just a hardcore motherfucker like that ;-P

Love it, with a decent air mattress. Nothing is better than listening to the night time sounds.

Put me out in a couple of sleeping bags on the beach, though (down by Lake Huron) and I’d rather sleep out under the stars.

My girlfriend and I did that in August a few times. A sleeping bag made for two, two pillows and our body heat. We were 6 feet from the water’s edge. Think small waves crashing into the shore and the blue/black sky filled with a million stars.

haha, one of the first times i slept in a tent, i was in Utah on a teen tour (summer program, 40+ kids, some adults – we traveled for 6 weeks over the summer and we camped, stayed in college dorms, and hotels) and there were about 6 other girls in the tent. I woke up in the middle of the night, needing the bathroom, and when I tried to get out of my cot, it closed up on me! So embarrassing… but I love camping! not too much fun when it’s raining and the tent floods though

A delightful question.

I haven’t slept in a tent for over 40 years. I wonder why? I enjoyed it. I also slept under a boat once, in the rain, with 13 other young guys, after rowing against wind and tide for hours in the rain… just to get to shore so we could turn over the boat and go to sleep. That was okay, too. But I would have given a lot for a female form to keep me warm.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I don’t wear enough to bed to pull that one off, no matter how hardcore I am feeling.

I camp at least once a month with the scouts and for me the less tent the better….strike that….the bigger the tent the better I sleep and hang out with the other parents on scout outings. I love tent camping and my favorite is tarp camping where you string a cloth tarp over you and bunk on a wool blanket with a full on view of the stars….

@delirium, yeah, I usually sleep in whatever I was wearing during the day when I’m inna woods.

Never seems to fail that I go to sleep cold and wake up sweating my ass off. Other than that I’ve had many many good times in a tent, so I can’t complain too much. :)

I love that outdoor smell when you’re in a tent at night. You know that tent smell, right?

Am I weird?

I love sleeping in tents when my family goes camping. The only thing is that when it’s really windy, I have to put super huge rocks in the corners. Has anyone else ever camped indoors? I used to do that all the time.

Tents are okay as long as no one pees on the campfire.

It depends on the tent and the conditions. Last year on my backpacking trip we got caught in a bad rainstorm and we made the rookie mistake of pitching our tent in a tree well. We woke up with the tent literally floating, and we both had down sleeping bags.

I have on many, many occasions, but, given the choice, I would choose a motel room.

I hate tents. As soon as the sun begins to rise, you roast like a bitch and I don’t like it.

I’m with you on chasing bugs though, that’s the only reason to even go camping. :D

@Symbeline The trick is knowing where the sun rises and make sure you position your tent where it doesn’t shine into your tent.

Laying in a tent during a gentle rain is sublime.

@Rarebear Sounds logical, but last place I went camping had woods…but all the trees were so close to one another that we couldn’t go further into the island, so we had to set up camp on the beach. :/

‘sgood stuff. Sleeping in a tent is about as rustically modern as it gets. You get a good barrier from nature while still being directly in nature.

Here’s the last tent pic I took: tent pic

I agree with others that they’re uncomfortable in the morning during the sun, but if possible, I always place it with a shady barrier to the east. I love it when a rainstorm hits, and everyone climbs into tents to talk, play cards, smoke, or drink tea.

I love the pitter patter of the rain hitting the fabric of the tent while I sleep. On clear nights I like to keep the top open so I can see the stars or the moon.

I love camping. It was something my dad was into, I grew up with it. We for many year had a tent. Bought air matteresses and lamps . Waking up to the birds . I love it. My dad after tenting it for as long as I can remember, bought a pop camper. He said he didn’t have the stuff anymore to set up tent and all. When he retired he bought a RV. So I will probably do the same. My daughter will know camping and a tent. I am waiting till she is five years old though. She can go hiking and swimming when schools out for summer.

I hesitate to say this, but, I’ve never actually slept in a tent. I was born and raised a city girl, through and through, and the closest I ever got to camping was staying in a log cabin in the mountains. Which I loved, except for the lack of an indoor bathroom. While I think I would love to sleep outdoors (the sky, the sounds, the air), I’m pretty sure I’d be terrified that I’d get eaten by a bear or something. :(

@Kraigmo – pretty spot! Here is one of ours somewhere between South Australia and the Northern Territory!

Anyone else have some pics? How bout you @delirium ?

Never as a couple, sleep in tents. It’s too intense :¬)

I have great memories of camping when I was a kid, and I love going to outdoor stores like REI and looking at the cool tents and outdoor gear available nowadays But the last time I slept in a tent, which was about 10 years ago, in a bed roll, I woke up feeling so cold and sore I vowed not the repeat the experience.

We went backpacking in the western Sierra Nevada and pitched our tent on the snow.

Being completely free of rocks, the snow provided a very comfortable surface for the tent base, and the residual winter environment made the internal tent temperature very comfortable in the morning.

Six summers of Girl Scout day camp. We had to be at least 12 years old in order to spend the night, so it was a rite-of-passage.

The tents were these large, army-like pea green things with wooden poles that always smelled a bit musty. We’d find the girls who weren’t afraid of picking up granddaddy long-legs and have her clear them out before entering. When it rained at night, the soft patter lulled us to sleep. One night, a herd of cattle lumbered through, and one stuck its head in our tent and snorted. It scared the daylights out of us. All-in-all, good memories.

I would definitely take a tent over a hotel room. I love listening to the trees, bugs, moose, bears etc. I love the sound of rain pounding on the tent. Last year, as we camped in Jasper National Park, we had a thunder storm roll in at 2am. We could feel the lightening pound into the ground. It was awesome.

Some of them can be really cute, but for the most part i don’t like them because i like having the usual home luxuries around me. And a tent can be a hassle to keep clean and it always needs to be swept clean except the tents we have you can’t just sweep things out the door because the tent is upturned to keep water out. That annoys me, i like sweeping to be simple and easy.
Anyway, the main reason i don’t like tents is because this implies that you have to use public bathrooms, and I HATE public bathrooms because they’re ew. If the tents had a bathrooms and toilet in it, i’d be happy though, and would be able to live with all the other things that tents usually lack for me.
It’s really nice camping in a nature reserve though, because you hear the animal sounds much more clearly. (camping in the Krugar Park is fun). But it can be uber scary when there’s a hippo on the other side of the puny camp boundary fence in the middle of the night.