Zenbivy Light Sleep System

May 22, 2024

“The most comfortable night’s sleep in the backcountry”

Really?! That's quite a claim to make and one that raises a skeptical eyebrow. More marketing nonsense? Nope, we really think that the Zenbivy sleep system comes as close to hitting the perfect compromise of comfort, warmth, versatility and bulk as anything we've tried or come across.

Our experience of camping in the wild is no different from others. Underneath, we've moved from closed cell foam mattresses to self inflating mattresses before finally graduating to the new generation of inflatable mattresses with built-in insulation.

But while we've updated what we were lying on, we had given no thought to what we were lying in.

A sleeping bag was “it” and apart from choosing a mummy shape or a left sided zip or right, that was the end of the story. But that changed when someone mentioned “camping quilts” to us. Lighter, less bulky and more comfortable sounded just too good to be true. We dug into it.

A sleeping bag is in effect two concentric layers of nylon sandwiching a layer of insulating material between them. That insulating material, be it down, feather or synthetic requires “loft” to trap the warm air - otherwise it's just a third thin layer of material offering no benefit at all. And that's precisely what happens when you lie in your sleeping bag - you flatten anything beneath you. With minimal insulating benefit from the bag, you rely on that offered by your sleeping mat to keep that side of your body warm. You need a sleeping mat with insulating qualities - a higher R-rating - and mats like this are now much more widely available.

So, some clever person thought, why not just dispense with the layer of sleeping bag insulation made obsolete by you squashing it flat? Just use an insulating layer above, a sheet and warm mat below. Sounds familiar? Of course it does, it’s the same concept that you have at home. Certainly not rocket science, just common sense. With the loss of a layer of insulation you have less weight and less volume to carry. There is no more restrictive cocoon-shaped bag where your sleeping positions are dictated by a nylon sheath. Freedom to spread and sprawl. It just gets better!

But, as always, there are downsides. A lightweight quilt slips, slides and falls off a slumbering body in the night. Cold drafts sneak in at the sides and feet. What to do?

Zenbivy have come up with a clever ruse. They have added “wings” to their undersheet at chest level - wings with simple colour-coded clips that can attach to loops on one or both sides of the quilt keeping it located securely but leaving the legs free to move around. On colder nights the foot of the quilt can be cinched together to form a box. A quilt for all seasons.

So that's the theory but does it work in practice? In short, the answer is a resounding “Yes”.

On a recent 2 week motopacking trip on the Trans Euro Trail in Spain and Portugal there were blue skies by day and star-studded nightskies. Clear skies meant cold nights but high in the Portuguse hills John slept sound and snug in a Zenbivy Light bed.

Motopackers have the luxury of worrying less about weight than their bikepacking peers but volume is key and the Zenbivy Light compacts very, very well.

By day the undersheet and quilt were stored in a compression sack and packed neatly away. By night the sheet fitted snugly around the sleeping mat and the quilt lofted beautifully. It felt, wait for it, luxurious. Not a word we have used before about wildcamping!

John's a confirmed quilt-camper now - there's no going back.