If you’re staying in fine hotels with fluffy duvets, you probably don’t need a sleep sheet, but if you’re sleeping in cheapo places on a budget—or sleeping in a hammock—they can be an essential item to pack. Cocoon has a whole line of these things out, all meant to be stuffed into their own sack, but this new one I’ve been trying out is made of silk and treated with InsectShield.
A sleep sack, also known as a travel sheet or “mummy liner,” can be a useful piece of gear to have on the road. It protects you from whatever nastiness is in or on the mattress you’re subjected to in cheap guesthouses, hostels, and second-class sleeping berths in trains. It allows you to use that blanket with a questionable laundry history and gives you something less scratchy to put next to your body.
If you sleep in a hammock in the wilderness, a travel sheet also provides a layer of warmth and protection. In either case, the Insect Shield treatment will help keep the mosquitoes away without you dousing your whole body in DEET. In North America, that means fewer bites on your body. In much of the world, it can mean another layer of protection against malaria or dengue fever.
This sleep sack can technically be washed 35 times before it loses its effectiveness. Really though, these things have to have a specification lower than clothing, even though both go through the same rigors. So assume that’s the minimum number of wash cycles and it’s probably more akin to what they can advertise for pants: 75 washings. Who washes a sleep sack that many times before they wear it out? Nobody I know.
The sack this goes into for packing is about 1/2 the size of the warmer safari bag one I reviewed two years ago. It’s about the size of a small bottle of bottled water. It weighs in at just 160 grams.
Unfortunately, the Cocoon brand is based in Austria and the company is rather shy about telling you where can find their products. Pulling up the USA/Canada selection gets you just an e-mail address. You can find it at Amazon Japan, but not at the U.S. or Canadian site. Paragon Sports and Backcountry carry the version without InsectShield, but not the one with it. So try back on those if you’re reading this later. For now, if you see a Cocoon display at your local outdoor retailer, see if they have this version or can get it.
#1 by Jacob - July 25th, 2012 at 10:54
Does she come with it? If so, count me in for a year’s supply.
#2 by Tim L. - July 27th, 2012 at 15:58
‘Fraid not bud. You’ll have to manage that on your own—and get a room with real sheets then!
#3 by Denny A - September 4th, 2012 at 05:22
“Unfortunately, the Cocoon brand is based in Austria”
I’m sure you meant ‘Unfortunately for those of us who live in the United States of America, the Cocoon brand is based in Austria’. No worries, mate, but for a travel site (and a good one at that), seems like a rather provincial way to express yourself.
#4 by Tim L. - September 4th, 2012 at 09:50
Sorry Denny, didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that, as with most travel and gear sites, Europeans are less than 10% of the readership. (Even ones based in Europe get the majority of their traffic from across the ocean if they’re in English.)
I used to include links to European online retailers, but they almost never got clicked on. It’s just a smaller, more fragmented market, with multiple languages. Still, you’re right. In the future I should probably say, “For the majority of our readers, unfortunately…”
#5 by Denny A - September 7th, 2012 at 12:39
No problem, Tim, I understand, really.
But you know what? I visited their site (not very informative), found a french phone#, called the distributeur, who gave me the name of the local retailer, and presto- I now own a cocoon insectshield travel sheet!
Couldn’t have done it without you :-)
#6 by Tim L. - September 7th, 2012 at 14:07
Great – glad you found it!