Quilts Are Better Than Sleeping Bags

Scott Gilbertson Gear May 30, 2026 6:04 AM Quilts Are Better Than Sleeping Bags Tired of sleeping like a mummy in a bag? Improve your backcountry sleep and carry less weight with an ultralight quilt. Courtesy of Zenbivy Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story I used to say that all my best days started with waking up in a sleeping bag. Waking up in a sleeping bag usually means you're out there somewhere, doing something interesting. In the past couple of years, though, I've found myself waking up out there to wonderful days spent doing interesting things, but without a sleeping bag in sight. Instead, I'm sleeping in what thru-hikers and ultralight redditors call a quilt. This is not a quilt like the one your grandmother gave you. Backpacking quilts are made of nylon and filled with down like a traditional sleeping bag . The difference is that they lay over you like, well, a quilt, rather than wrapping all the way around you like a sleeping bag. The benefit is twofold: A quilt is lighter, meaning less weight to carry in your pack, and, as an added bonus, I sleep better than I ever have in the backcountry. Mummified Let's face it, there's a reason backpackers have nicknamed sleeping bags "mummy bags." They're constricting at the best of times, suffocating at the worst. I don't know about you, but for me, there's nothing about a mummy that I want to emulate, not even when I'm sleeping. I was, therefore, as well primed as anyone to jump on the quilt bandwagon when it really began to take off a few years ago. And yet, I didn't. Perhaps it was something like Stockholm Syndrome ; I'd finally accepted the mummy thing and was, honestly, a little nervous to give up my sleeping bag for a quilt. But then I did, and I'm never coming back. Or mostly never coming back. But first, what's the difference between a sleeping bag and a quilt? As briefly noted above, the