Patent Application
20250169629
This disclosure relates generally to a portable outdoor sleep system that includes both padding and a sleeping quilt. The portable outdoor sleep system may further connect the padding and the sleeping quilt or, alternatively, connect to padding of another portable outdoor sleep system.
Long before humans developed huts and houses, it was necessary to find a comfortable and safe place to sleep. Comfort was necessary to ensure that a person had adequate rest to take on the challenges of obtaining food, water, constructing or improving shelter, among other activities. Safety was necessary to ensure that a sleeping person could not be attacked by animals or other humans while in an unconscious state brought on by sleeping.
Over time, structures were created that enhanced sleeping safety. Caves provided rock walls which could only be accessed through a single opening while huts provided separation between sleeping people inside and wild animals or people outside. Other humans relied on portable structures such as tents, to provide sleeping quarters that separated people inside from the outside world. Modern day buildings provide the same benefits in terms of providing safety for a place to sleep.
In any safe place to sleep, comfort became the next primary issue for a successful and/or meaningful sleep session. For example, even in caves, humans created spaces that created comfort to sleep, whether that was soft sand, plant clippings, leaves, tree branches, or even correctly placed rocks. As time went on, people learned how to create textiles, preserve furs, and use feathers to create softer, more comfortable sleeping areas.
In modern times, sleeping outside, or camping, has become an activity that people do for fun, in most cases. However, campers soon become aware of the same concerns experienced by the first human beings, which are safety and comfort. Portable tents have been made which provide a relatively safe place to sleep, or at least provide some separation from the outside to the inside. Comfort concerns have, unfortunately, lagged behind.
Products made specifically to provide additional comfort for sleeping outside as an activity are a product of the 20th century. For example, with the development of foam, many campers would lay a bedroll or a sleeping bag out on a foam pad which provided insulation from the ground and also provided a soft comfort layer to enhance sleeping comfort. Sleeping bags were created using various textiles that provided an enclosed space which could be warmed by body heat to keep a camper warm overnight. The problem with foam pads and sleeping bags, however, is that the combination of the two required significant space and were quite difficult to carry due to its relatively bulky profile. Other pads, which captured and held air were invented to reduce the bulk of a sleeping pad. However, the convenience of a less bulky air based sleeping pad was largely negated by most campers wanting to use a manual or electric pump to inflate the sleeping pad. The manual or electric pump could itself be bulky or heavy, which still made a pad inconvenient.
More recently, self-inflating pads have been developed, which are made from open cell foam. Self-inflating pads include a valve which allows air into the self-inflating pad which occupies the open cells in the foam. When the valve is closed, the air has nowhere to go under the pressure of a person laying on the pad and acts as a supportive cushion for sleeping. The air can be removed by re-opening the valve and applying pressure to the pad to squeeze the air out of the foam, reducing both the bulk associated with foam and the additional weight or bulk associated with a pump.
Many campers, however, feel that even a self-inflating pad lacks the level of comfort that is desirable for sleeping on the ground. Further, self-inflating pads tend to have shells on the outside which can be slippery when in contact with certain types of sleeping bags. This can cause a camper to slide off the pad during the night, which most campers find undesirable.
Therefore, it is the object of this disclosure to provide a portable camping sleep system which includes padding and a sleeping bag. It is another object of this disclosure to provide a portable camping sleep system which includes padding and a sleeping bag which is interconnected. It is another object of this disclosure to provide a portable camping sleep system which allows connection to other portable camping sleep systems.
A sleep system includes a first padding layer, a second padding layer, and a sleeping quilt. The first padding layer connects to the second padding layer and the second padding layer connects to the sleeping quilt.
The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of a portable camping sleep system.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific techniques and embodiments are set forth, such as particular techniques and configurations, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the hammock strap disclosed herein. While the techniques and embodiments will primarily be described in context with the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the techniques and embodiments may also be practiced in other similar apparatuses.
Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. It is further noted that elements disclosed with respect to particular embodiments are not restricted to only those embodiments in which they are described. For example, an element described in reference to one embodiment or figure, may be alternatively included in another embodiment or figure regardless of whether or not those elements are shown or described in another embodiment or figure. In other words, elements in the figures may be interchangeable between various embodiments disclosed herein, whether shown or not.
Self-inflating layer 105 may further include a connector 120A which connects self-inflating layer 105 to a topper layer 110. Connector 120A may be any suitable connector known in the art. In a preferred embodiment, connector 120A may be implemented as a zipper, one side of which is attached to self-inflating layer 105 and one side of which is attached to topper layer 110. A zipper pull may cause teeth in the zipper to interlock when pulled in a first direction and unlock when pulled in a second direction opposite the first direction. In this manner, self-inflating layer 105 may be selectively connected to topper layer 110. As will be discussed below, corresponding connector 120C is disposed on an opposing side of self-inflating layer 105 which allows self-inflating layer 105 and topper layer 110 to be connected on two sides.
Topper layer 110 may be constructed using a second type of padding, such as memory foam, which is known to conform to a user's body and therefore increase comfort as a type of viscoelastic foam. Topper layer 110 may be encased in a cotton or linen material which is similar to what is conventionally used in bed sheets to provide additional comfort by using similar materials to that which a camper is generally accustomed to at home. In a preferred embodiment, self-inflating layer 105 may generally have a thickness of about 4 inches while topper layer 110 may generally have a thickness of about 2 inches which provides about 6 inches of padding between a user and the ground. This thickness of padding and two different materials providing the padding provides insulative properties to prevent cold in the ground from drawing heat from a camper while sleep system 100 is in use.
Topper layer 110 may further include a connector 120B which connects a sleeping quilt 115 to a topper layer 110. Connector 120B may be any suitable connector known in the art. In a preferred embodiment, connector 120B may be implemented as a zipper, one side of which is attached to sleeping quilt 115 and one side of which is attached to topper layer 110. A zipper pull may cause teeth in the zipper to interlock when pulled in a first direction and unlock when pulled in a second direction opposite the first direction. In this manner, sleeping quilt 115 may be selectively connected to topper layer 110. As will be discussed below, corresponding connector 120D is disposed on an opposing side of topper layer 110 which allows sleeping quilt 115 and topper layer 110 to be connected on two sides in one embodiment. It is also noted that connector 120B may attach to a second one of sleep system 100 by a complementary connector 120B. In particular, a topper layer 110 of one of sleep system 100 may connect by connector 120B to another topper layer 110 of another one of sleep system 100, effectively connecting two of topper layers 110 together. Corresponding sleeping quilts 115 may also be zipped together allowing two or more sleep systems 100 to be joined together, as will be discussed in more detail below.
Topper layer 110 may further implement a hood 125, as will be discussed below, which may provide additional insulation for a head of a camper and serve to close gaps between sleeping quilt 115 and hood 125 which may allow warm air inside sleeping quilt 115 to escape and allow cold air into sleeping quilt 125. Hood 125 may further include a cinch cord to draw hood 125 closed and eliminate gaps between sleeping quilt 115 and hood 125.
Sleeping quilt 115, which will be discussed in more detail below, may be an insulated blanket fitted with a footbox 135 and connect to topper layer 110 by connector 120B and a corresponding connector 120D, which will be discussed below, and depending on whether or not another one of sleep systems 100 is connected to topper layer 110. Sleeping quilt 115, thereby forms a bag, in one example, which is formed by connecting the insulated blanket of sleeping quilt 115 to topper layer 110 by connector 120B. Topper layer 110 becomes a back of the bag while sleeping quilt 115 forms a front of the bag.
The side view of sleep system 100 shown in
As shown in
In one preferable embodiment, connector 120A, connector 120B, connector 120C, and connector 120D may be zippers which each have a first side and a second side of interlocking teeth which may be selectively joined by a zipper pull. Thus, a first side of a zipper implemented as connector 120A may be attached to a side of topper layer 110 to interact with a second side of connector 120A attached to self-inflating layer 105. A first side of a zipper implemented as connector 120C may also be attached to a side of topper layer 110 (opposite of connector 120A) to interact with a second side of connector 120C attached to self-inflating layer 105 Similarly, a first side of a zipper implemented as connector 120B may be attached to a side of topper layer 110 above connector 120A to interact with a second side of connector 120B attached to sleeping quilt 115. In the same fashion, a first side of a zipper implemented as connector 120D may be attached to a side of topper layer 110 (opposite of connector 120B) above connector 120C to interact with a second side of connector 120C attached to sleeping quilt 115. Connector 120A, connector 120B, connector 120C, and connector 120D may have a length that extends from hood 125 and terminates before an end of a length of topper layer 110 (i.e., each one of connector 120A, connector 120B, connector 120C and connector 120D end before an end of topper layer 110) to accommodate flexibility in footbox 135, discussed in
As previously discussed, topper layer 110 may further include a hood installed as part of topper layer 110. Hood 125 may accommodate a pillow and may be sized to accommodate a user's head on a pillow within hood 125. Hood 125 may further include a cinch string that may tighten hood 125 about a user's head to ensure heat within hood 125 or within sleeping quilt 115 may be retained within hood 125 or within sleeping quilt 115.
Topper layer 110 may further include a pocket 130 which may be suitable for holding sensitive electronics, wallets, keys, or other valuables. Pocket 130 may be positioned partially under hood 125 but may also be positioned anywhere else on sleep system 100, including between topper layer 110 and self-inflating layer 105.
Footbox 135 may be tapered as shown in
It is noted that it has been conceived, that topper layer 110, sleeping quilt 115, and self-inflating layer 105 may be modular in nature. For example, topper layer 110 may connect to sleeping quilt 115 without first being connected to self-inflating layer 105. Likewise, sleeping quilt 115 may attach directly to self-inflating layer 105 without topper layer 110 and self-inflating layer 105 could connect to topper layer 110 without sleeping quilt 115. Thus, one or more parts of system 100 may be used singly or in combination with one or more of the other parts disclosed herein. It is also noted that this configuration may allow a user to use system 100 without having all of the elements of system 100. For example, a user may choose to use a self-inflating layer 105 and topper 110 with a conventional sleeping bag instead of sleeping quilt 115. It is also noted that connector adapters may be provided which may position connectors on 3rd party sleeping pads, that may allow one or more of self-inflating layer 105, topper layer 110, and sleeping quilt 115 to connect to the 3rd party sleeping pads by the connector adapters.
The foregoing description has been presented for purposes of illustration. It is not exhaustive and does not limit the invention to the precise forms or embodiments disclosed. Modifications and adaptations will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosed embodiments. For example, components described herein may be removed and other components added without departing from the scope or spirit of the embodiments disclosed herein or the appended claims.
Other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
This application is a non-provisional patent application which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/602,490, filed on Nov. 24, 2023.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63602490 | Nov 2023 | US |
