No matter if you’re seeking the ideal sleeping system for long backpacking trips or simply wish to reduce weight in your bag, our lightweight sleeping bags offer premium warmth at a fraction of their weight.

Ultralight bags shave weight with lofty goose down fill power of 850+ fill, thin shell materials and feature sets tailored for ultralight travel. Feathered Friends Vireo UL and Tanager models from Feathered Friends offer ultralight solutions without compromising for cost.

Weight

Modern sleeping bags and quilts are filled with synthetic fibers that help reduce weight, dry quickly, and retain heat effectively – but at an environmental cost: they take up valuable landfill space while emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and leaching dyes into our soil and waterways.

No matter your destination – be it rapid ascent, backpacking across continents or camping close by – it is crucial to keep weight to a minimum when packing light. Our mummy-style ultralight sleepers offer excellent warmth-to-weight ratios by using innovative designs with lofty 850+ goose down fill for superior warmth-to-weight ratios.

Other methods for saving weight include half zips, thin shell fabrics (such as Hammock Gear’s 7-denier Burrow UL from Hammock Gear), and no-hood models like Zpacks Classic sleep sacks with zippered openings that allow airflow if temperatures increase – perfect for hot nights and use as bivy bags!

Insulation

Many of the best lightweight sleeping bags offer an impressive warmth-to-weight ratio. Utilizing either natural or synthetic quilt insulation, these sleeping bags can keep you toasty in temperatures that span the spectrum. Outdoor professionals and serious amateur adventurers prefer synthetic fill or down insulation as it resists moisture while compressing easily while still preserving its thermal insulation properties.

Baffles are sewn together to form the insulated sections of a bag or quilt in various patterns, which we refer to as baffles. These sewn pieces, like those featured in our Loco Libre Operator Series and Zpacks options, help even out down or synthetic insulation distribution, making these options especially important for people who sleep on their stomachs or sides as these bodies shift during sleep, often losing body heat during the night.

Look for eco-friendly certifications such as Bluesign and Oeko-Tex to ensure that your sleeping bag is nontoxic, and select products using recycled or sustainably harvested feathers as well as synthetic insulation for additional eco-benefits.

Versatility

Lightweight sleeping bags have their limits. We look for designs that balance warmth, comfort and packability; extra points go to bags made with synthetic insulation which maintains warmth when wet; we also look for bags with full-length zippers so that users can ventilate on warm nights; and additional points for dry down which sheds water more efficiently than standard down.

Some ultralight mummy bags economize on insulation and ventilation by cutting corners on insulation (the REI Co-op Magma is one such example), shortening or eliminating their zipper (Sea to Summit Spark or Feathered Friends Tanager are among them), or going zipperless altogether (Feathered Friends Tanager). We believe these sacrifices are worth making for backpackers looking to minimize what they carry with them.

We favor sleeping bags that can be zip together (REI Co-op Polaris and Mountain Hardwear Phantom are two such models), enabling couples to share one sleeping bag comfortably and sleep through the night together.

Comfort

Have you ever experienced what it’s like to spend an entire backcountry night shivering and chattering your teeth? If so, then you know just how essential a warm and comfortable sleeping bag can be for survival.

Some ultralight sleeping bags feature fleece liners to increase warmth and comfort by restricting air convection around the body, while other models can be used without them to save even more weight and pack down smaller.

Ultralight sleeping bag manufacturers reduce weight in various ways, including shortening zipper length. Some designs use partial-length zippers (like REI Co-op Magma), while other omit them entirely ( like Feathered Friends Tanager and Vireo).

Many of our selection of down sleeping bags feature Responsible Down Standard certified RDS down, to ensure no animals were harmed in production. Some also provide an internal sleeve to securely place camp pillows or sleeping pads to reduce drooping and compression during sleep.