I Slept in a Sleeping Bag for 2 Years: Here’s What I Learned
When I was a little kid, probably between the ages of 5–7, my lifetime boss, a.k.a. Stefan, a.k.a. my older brother, had a brilliant idea after a camping trip. My parents got us all really nice sleeping bags for the trip. These sleeping bags were so comfortable for Stefan, his brain began devising a plan; shortly after, the idea was proposed to me: we would start sleeping on top of our perfectly made beds inside of our sleeping bags. It lasted an entirety of 2 years or so.
I used to do everything Stefan told me to. We would play with legos together, having a blast, and all of a sudden I had two fatal options. 1) I die forever and never play with him again, or 2) I have to wear an ugly skeleton head for the rest of the game. Guess which one I chose (it was the ugly skeleton head, which as a girly girl, devastated me). When Justin Bieber became popular and all of my friends wanted to marry him at age 8, I was a hater. Why? Because Stefan did not care for him, therefore, neither did I.
So as you can assume, I quickly followed suit with the sleeping bag decision. Surprisingly, our parents were all about it. It makes sense looking back that there were many reasons why.
- We did anything possible to get out of cleaning.
Kids enjoy one thing: fun. News flash! Making your bed is not fun. In fact, cleaning anything is not fun. I like making a lot of things. I like making art, music, and films, but I don’t like making my bed, and Stefan didn’t either. To this day, Stefan is not one to make his bed. With a sleeping bag, you don’t have to make your bed, in fact, your bed can remain untouched for over a year.
2. No more washing sheets.
At such a young age washing sheets wasn’t my problem. It was, however, my mom’s problem, which is why I’m sure she loved not having to do that anymore. Yes, the sleeping bags got washed, but according to my mother, not as often as maybe we could have. Just thinking about the microscopic organisms living in there makes me feel yucky.
3. We were very entertained by our portable beds.
We used to hop around the entire house like we were having one of those potato-sack field day races. We would unzip the bottom of the bags and connect them together, crawling through it like a cat toy. We also put our cats in them.
Somehow, I don’t remember any of my friends really batting an eye. Maybe they kept their judgments in their little heads, but kids are brutally honest, and if I’m being honest, I think they loved it.
Eventually, my parents had me try going in my bed again. I don’t like the whole waiting for your sheets to warm up thing (it happens with jackets too). So, I began just using a blanket as a sheet underneath my comforter and using about 5 box fans to keep me nice and cool whilst bundled up as if I lived in Siberia. That’s kind of where I am to this day.
I feel like I just wrote a persuasive argument on why using a sleeping bag every night for 2 years is a good idea. Hey, if it’s something that works for you, that’s great, you have my blessing.
