At one time or another you will be on an outdoor adventure and the weather turn cold especially at night. Keeping this in mind you will need to look for a sleeping bag that will be rated for the coldest of temperatures that you may be exposed to backpacking and camping. For your warm weather trips a sleeping bag rated with a +35 degree or even above will be good enough.
For camping in the mountains or in the fall or spring months the bags with the rating of +10 through +35 are best. If you like the winter scene for camping then you will require the rating of the sleeping bag to be -10 through +10, and then the ones that do expeditions like the alpine climbs will need the sleeping bags that are rated for the -10 and under range.
These ratings are only approximate figures for warmth on these bags from the manufacturers. All people get at different levels of warmth when they sleep, no one is the same. Say you are one that likes a heavy blanket to sleep with, you may need a sleeping bag about 10 degrees higher than norm in rating. But what if you are constantly throwing the blankets off, you then may need a bag that is about 10 degrees lower in norm in rating.
The insulating material, used in a sleeping bag, is the most vital part of it. With today’s bags you have 2 materials to choose from: synthetic or goose down. Both of the materials do have their good points and bad points, while down bags are thought to be the best due to their ratio of warmth-to-bulk or the warmth-to-weight being so great.
Down is nice, light and very easy to compress to roll the bag up, but gives you fantastic insulation. How do you think geese can be so warm and fly too during the cold weather? Reports show that down is durable over the long haul and even can insulate after you using the bag for years.
There are many bags though made from synthetic materials that are top rate too. Synthetics are being made better than they used to be. These bags may weigh a bit more than the down versions do but you will see that the synthetic ones will be better in damp weather. If down get damp or wet it doesn’t keep you warm, it loses the insulation ability at that point.
So for those wet condition type trips definitely reach for the synthetic sleeping bags. Another thing to remember is that while you will find people allergic to down the synthetic has a reputation of being hypoallergenic. Down will cost you more than the synthetic, which is more reasonably priced. You can have your budget and your fun!