If your not used to camping outdoors, the thought of being caught off guard while sleeping, by some spooky animal or trespasser, can rob you of your precious slumber, and make you feel run down the next day. Here are several ways you can feel safer at night when sleeping exposed to nature.
Use a Tent
When we were kids, my dad would take us camping at New River, near Hinton, West Virginia at an unofficial location by the river. We would just bring cots and old school, Coleman sleeping bags, and sleep under the trees and stars. But if this wasn’t a normal part of your upbringing, the idea of going to bed completely exposed to the nightlife could be unsettling.
Sleeping in a tent gives you a familiar setting in which to knock out for the night. It’s got walls (unless you’re ultralighting with just a fly and a footprint), a roof, a floor, and some means of protecting you from the weather, bugs and small creatures that may want to venture into your campground when they think the coast is clear. It can feel like a home, especially if you dress it down nicely; more on that below.
Plus the more you sleep in the same tent, the more familiar you get with that environment, and learn to trust it as an adequate shelter, providing a feeling of safety and better sleep in the long run.
Lights and Power
USB Lighting
When I’m solo camping in my own little outdoor nook, for me to feel safer, I like to bring lots of lighting that works as both as an all-night porch light, and nightlight. I dress my tent up with these USB Edison lights, and let them burn all night long (see pics above). That way I can look out the door of my tent, and see everything in the immediate vicinity lit up, so I know there’s not a bear or cougar, or pick whatever your afraid of, staring at me, ready to pounce!
Lantern Lighting
I also leave a 30-Day Duro lantern running inside the tent, so I can see everything in doors at all times. I put it on its dimmest setting so as not to bother my sleep. It can run for 30 days on this setting, so I don’t feel bad leaving it on all night.
Headlamp For Surveying Campsite
I also have a Black Diamond headlamp that has both spot and floodlight features. Right before I turn in for bed at night, I walk though my campground with the spotlight on, and see everything lit up, crystal clear. My headlamp can provide light up to 100 meters (330 feet) away. That assures me nothing is in the periphery of my campground as I’m about to clonk out for the night.
Power Sources
Depending on the trip, I power my USB outdoor lights with either my DIY solar battery bank, which can be recharged in the daytime with my solar panel, or I just use an Anker PowerCore 26800 portable battery, which has 3 USB outs, for an overnight trip. The Anker has enough amps in it to power my lights for 9 hours, plus recharge my phone and let it run lengthy segments of the night for some other creature comforts I’ll discuss further on down.
Tent Placement for Safe Camping
You don’t want to arbitrarily pitch your tent at the campground. You want to place it on a flat surface, where you can look out the window and see into the distance. That way you can see there’s nothing in your camp from inside the tent. Preferably, you’d want the backdoor, or non-door side of the tent, which you don’t plan to use, towards dense brush; dense enough that it discourages animals from entering your campsite from that direction. Animals are lazy, like humans; they will choose the easiest path of travel to get from point A to point B.
Maximize Your Sleep Comfort
Place your tent on a flat surface. If there are no flat surfaces, place it on the shallowest incline possible such that your head will be above your feet when sleeping. These are the easiest positions to rest in. If you place the tent and your sleep system any other way on an incline, you can disrupt your comfort and sleep. For instance, if your feet are elevated above your head, then the blood will uncomfortably pool in your head when trying to sleep. Or if you’re tilting to one side and are subconsciously keeping your muscles tense to avoid gradually sliding off the bed, that too is not going to keep you relaxed.
If you’re car camping, you might consider a queen sized mattress and a foam topper. This basically comes as close as can be to the comfort of your bed at home. Heck you might even want to cut up an eggshell foam topper to fit your blow-up sleeping pad, if you don’t want to deal with a blow-up mattress, or are hiking into a trail camp (roll it up and attach it like a foldable sleeping pad to the bottom of your pack).
Replicate Your At-Home Sleeping Rituals
Another way to stay relaxed at night is to try to replicate your home setup to garner the comfort of familiarity. If you like to sleep with a fan on at home, bring a fan. Or if you’re backpacking, download a fan sound app, so your phone can provide similar white noise to your tent. If you sleep with the TV on, and there’s internet where your camping, dial in a favorite show off Youtube or podcast, and listen as you sleep. Just make sure you have enough power handy to let your phone run continuously at night.
My solar battery bank let’s me run lights and a 12 volt fan all night. My Anker PowerCore lets me run lights, Youtube for a few hours, and my fan app for a few hours, all on one charge (for overnight trips).
Use of Medication and Alcohol
If you know you’re going to be disturbed by the local raccoon battle over your camping neighbor’s marshmallows they left beside their fire pit, or the owl that decides to pick the tree right next to your tent to call out to it rivals, then you may want to medicate. Sometimes is best to just sleep through any anxiety inducing noises using sedative medication.
Sedative Antihistamines
Benadryl (diphenhydramine) is an over the counter sedative antihistamine. It causes sedation and reduction in nervousness, so it can help you sleep through otherwise scary noises. Adults can take 25-50mg (one or two tabs or caps) every 4-6 hours, but there is some variance in onset of drowsiness so definitely do some trial runs at home so as to know exactly when to take the medication at night, or in the evening, for sleep.
And be aware it can cause a drowsiness hangover then next day, as well as decreased sweating and ability to regulate your temperature at higher ambient temperatures, were you to take it around the clock (every 4 to 6 hours). Also watch for constipation, and a reduction in bladder muscle strength, which may be consequential for those that have trouble urinating in the middle of the night, due to enlarged prostates or otherwise. Don’t take it if you have a serious chronic heart arrhythmia either.
Alcohol
Alcohol also helps reduce stress, but it can also reduce your quality of sleep, plus it can wear off relatively fast. It may help you fall asleep, but you can still wake up in the middle of the night once its effects have passed.
If you’re like me, where the sleepiness effect of Benadryl take hours to kick in, and alcohol’s effect is short lived, you may have to take both: use the alcohol to fall asleep, and the Benadryl to stay asleep. Just don’t overdo either one when using together; don’t binge drink to toxicity, then take 10 Benadryls in a night.
Generally you’ll want to use alcohol with a higher proof, as to minimize the volume of urine you’ll produce at night, as a result of alcohol related diuresis. A shot of whisky may have the same sedative strength as a couple beers but a lot less fluid volume, so potentially less getting up in the middle of the night to pee. Plus it’s a lot easier to carry a small flask of whisky than a six-pack of beer if you’re packing in or packing light.
Use of a Urinal
Okay so you’ve got your headlamp so you can see all around you at night, but you still feel unsafe leaving your tent in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, or you don’t want to walk all the way to the bathroom and potentially have your sleep leave you. Then consider buying a urinal, and use it to relieve your bladder when nature calls at 4am. Then in the morning, just dump it in the appropriate area and wash it out with some soap and water. They make ones that have attachable cups for women also.
Do Trial Run Camping
To condition your body into relaxing and feeling safe in your tent, you might elect to do some trial runs in an environment in which you know is perfectly safe. Set your tent up in your backyard and sleep in it at night to get a feel for what it feels like to sleep safely in your tent. Or reserve some beach camping on Reserve California in places like El Capitan State Beach. These sites don’t have large wild mammals skulking about at night, looking for your half eaten beef jerky, so they make good places to get used to tent camping in a safe environment. The raccoons at these places will even make some noise at night, so you can get used to safe, non-threatening animal sounds outside the tent.
Research What You’re Scared Of: Animal Related Fears
If you’re scared of being gobbled up by a bear in the middle of the night, research if there are even bears in the area you’ll be camping. And if there are, what kind of bear is it? If you’re in black bear country, you’re multiple times more safe than if you are in grizzly bear territory. Learn how to haze and defend yourself against whichever bear, whose woods you’ll be in.
Same deal with cougars, coyotes, bobcats, whatever makes you apprehensive. Get your game plan in place so you know what to do during an unlikely encounter.
Research How to Minimize Animal Encounters
Research and follow the food storage rules for whatever area your going. You may need bear canisters in some areas; you may be able to rent these locally. You may need hanging food bags with scent proof baggies in others. Use of bear lockers are often required at established sites. When in non-developed campsites, try not to cook, eat and store food anywhere near where you plan to put your tent up for the night; and if you can, keep your cooking clothes with your food, and have separate sleeping clothes.
Make noise around camp, especially if alone, but when possible go with friends, and talk loudly. Take your dog so that they produce barking noise; just don’t let them off leash, as them running back to you after seeing a predator may bring the predator back to your camp. Make even more noise in noisy places (rivers, waterfalls, windy areas, rainstorms) and hard to see places. Pop off an air horn when you first arrive at camp to alert any creature that would want to avoid humans, given the chance, that now is that chance.
Assemble Your Hazing and Deterrent Gear
Counter Assault Pepper Spray is a favorite among park rangers. This is the one I carry when hiking, and in the tent at night. Just read the label for its range, and measure out and memorize what that range looks like. Hold the bottle tightly when using or it has a tendency to spray upwards and over the bear/animal when loosely held.
Research if you’re allowed to carry projectiles in the area your going and stock up on the bird and bear bangers/screamers, and a banger gun and blanks. Heck some states/campgrounds may even allow you to carry a firearm with you, which, other than the thought of hearing loss related to discharging a firearm without ear protection, might be your best sleep-well-at-night deterrent.
Again the air horn might be useful if you can startle a food seeking animal, just be aware they might not get startled if their food drive is high enough.
I wrote a little bit about coyote hazing in my article about camping at Topanga State Park. Unless they’re city dwellers, they tend to be scaredy-cats.
Engineering Deterrents
If you’re scared of things like rattlesnakes, black widows, bees, mosquitos, etc., then make sure your tent has a strong and tall, waterproof bathtub floor and noseeum mesh in its upper section to keep the creepy-crawlies out. And don’t let your friends convince you to go ultralight with just a fly, poles, and footprint, leaving your inner tent behind at home. My Featherstone 2P Peridot tent has a pretty high bathtub wall that has successfully kept all bugs and critters out on its maiden voyage at Dogwood Campground in Lake Arrowhead.
You possibly could invest in a tripwire system for around your tent, but you run the risk of being woken up at night by the tripwire alarm, when a raccoon or non-threatening creature trips it. So there’s always that pro/con balance, when thinking about that as an engineering solution, for a better night’s sleep.
Research What You’re Scared Of: Weather Related Fears
If it’s windy and rainy, or snowy and cold where you’ll be camping, you’re pre-camping homework will consist of figuring out the appropriate tent and sleep system for those conditions. Once you know exactly what you need, this will relieve the stress of anticipating weather related tragedies in the field.
Warm Sleeping Pad
Remember you’ll need a sleeping pad with a high ASTM R-value if you’re going to be in cold conditions; even a super insulated sleeping bag won’t keep your warm, if your sleeping pad pulls all the heat from you and delivers it to the cold earth below. I use a Big Agnes Rapide SL which has an R-value of 4.2, which basically means it can be used in the chilly Spring, Summer, and chilly Fall; I recommend a regular wide size for people like me that sleep on their sides.
Warm Sleeping Bag
Also, keep in mind, you’ll want a sleeping bag that has a ISO/EN comfortable temperature rating about 10 degrees Fahrenheit lower than what you’ll be expecting at night, for the sake of contingencies. And note that comfort rating assumes you’ll be bundled up with layers before you even get in your bag.
High Waterproof Rating Tent
Make sure your tent has a high hydrostatic head rating to keep the rain out. Shoot for at least 2000-3000mm; cheap tents now have 5000mm material in some cases, like my Featherstone tent does. And make sure your tent’s seams are all factory sealed with a waterproof laminate tape. The most critical areas for these seam seals are on the fly and the bathtub floor of the tent; rarely do manufactures seal seams higher up on the inner body’s walls.
Guy Lines
Also pick a tent that can be used with guy lines effectively. My girlfriend had a rough night at Gaviota State Park when we were in my REI Base Camp 4 tent that I didn’t guy out, since I didn’t bring my guys. The wind was so strong, that the tent walls keep collapsing inward all night during heavy gusts. It didn’t hurt the tent any, but it was pretty disturbing for her; I slept through it since it was like white noise for me lol!
Tent Season Rating
Also when picking a tent, check the season rating against the season you’re camping in. Most tents are just rated for spring, summer, and fall. Some have the 3 to 4 season rating, which means they can handle larger wind and snow loads in the winter time, like my REI Base Camp 4.
Further Reading
Thanks for reading! Check out some of my other How To’s:
- How To Score Campsites on Reserve California
- How To: Prius Prime Car Camping at Reserved Campgrounds
- Guide to Easy and Cheap Camping at Topanga State Park
Check out my Camping page for more articles as well. Take care!