Big Agnes - Campmeister Deluxe Insulated Air Pad

Be wary of uninsulated air mattresses in mild temps.  I bought 2x Big Agnes insulated pads for my twins, along with the BA kid’s sleeping bags for our twins. This is more of a backpacking setup, but works great for car camping and living room camping.  The bags have a sleeve on the bottom so you can slide the pad inside. Helps keep them in the bag and on the pad - again - cause the cold ground can give them a chill. 

Big Agnes is the best I’ve found. Pricey but well worth it.

Have you considered a camping cot? There are a lot of ultralight options now which are about the same price as a good sleeping pad for side sleepers. The only difference being is the weight, you’re looking at around 1.5kg for a cot bed which would be double the weight of a sleeping pad. For me, the extra weight is worth it for the comfort. For context I’ve tried Therm-a-Rest, Big Agnes and Nemo mats. If I’m going for comfort, the cot bed wins every time.

Big Agnes pads are some of the toughest out there as far as I can know, yet I have gone through three because of punctures. Each time the holes have been so small that I can't find them without getting to a hotel and submerging them in the tub. The company is great about replacing them, but I've gone back to foam mats.

Big Agnes and sea to summit checks all your boxes. Small/compact, uses vertical baffles to prevent that bouncy castle feeling and provide actual support

It's very simple if it blows up with air and inflates - at SOME point it's gonna get a hole in it. That's life! The whole air mattress thing started with Therm-a-rest's and they were pretty tough back then, now with everybody sporting hard-on's for "ultralight" gear its gonna get worse. Same goes for actual air mattress, you can sleep on them but if you're not in Texas or Arizona yer still gonna freeze your butt off. Here's why ....... People these days buy inflatable pads for the comfort, but you really need them for the insulative qualities they actually provide. Don't believe me go sleep on the actual ground one night. When you crawl in to your sleeping bag you actually crush the down or syntho fill in the bag so there is no insulation there under you and the cold even in summer can seep right in. You need a pad under you to keep you off the ground ..... the best ones for that are still the cheap blue ensolite foamy's you buy at the cheaper stores but yes, for comfort they suck. There is a yellow thicker brand called Zotefoams Evazote and they got up to an inch thick but I haven't seem them for years but they were good quality and tough and CAN'T deflate ! So ultimately if you want comfort you need to go buy a big chunk of open cell white foam four inches thick and 7 feet long like you see in hobby stores - mega comfy and the size of a house! But now you can't pack it anyway so you're back to the blow up pads - and that's it. You can go to stores and look at stuff like Futons and crap but they don't pack well ! Heck even Ikea makes a folding mattress but again good luck carrying it around, right? Pick one but they WILL get a hole in them at some point however you can try to limit that with a cot. I've used them for years and its nice. I'm gonna suggest a Cabella's Lounger Cot but they are $350 bloody bucks and the same goes a real camping pad, something like a Exped Megamat itself is $400 bucks by itself. The two cots I wanna get are gonna cost me $405 bucks so add in two decent pads like Expeds and they're $500 .... great huh? It's nuts at a thousand bucks! I actually might just go get some memory foam cut at an RV store and use that. They can't deflate and its about the same bloody price as these inflatable ones, granted it won't be near as packable and portable but both my Thermarest leak, both my Big Agnes pad leak, even the TWO Coleman air beds leak, you can't win. My tent is 210 sq feet and 10 feet tall so I don't need backpack-ability either ........

I went from a Klymit to a Big Agnes. Night and day difference. 

Best sleeping pad is a 1,000% subjective. Different pads will be comfortable to different people depending on their preferences and sleeping habits, and the most important thing is finding a sleeping pad that is comfortable for you to sleep on. Now, there are **objective** differences between sleeping pads when it comes to things like price, R value, weight, packability, durability, etc. Many of these qualities are going to be directly antithetical to each other (e.g. higher R values and durability are generally going to come with a weight penalty; lighter weights/more packable are almost always going to be more expensive as well as more delicate). You just gotta try to find the pad that feels comfortable to you AND has the best combination of those objective qualities that matter most to you. Personally I've settled on the Therm-A-Rest Neoloft as my 3-season pad and the BA Campmeister Deluxe as my colder weather pad. Those pads are bigger and heavier than a lot of options on the market but they are super comfortable for me to sleep on and are made from more durable materials (75D on the BA and I believe 50D top/75D bottom on the Neoloft) so hopefully the odds of me waking up on a flat pad on cold hard ground are greatly reduced. Although I do also own a Nemo Tensor if I ever feel like I need to go super light for some reason. I am lucky to be in a position to own several high-end sleeping pads to keep around as options for different conditions!

Get something with a super high R rating - higher than you think you need. Look for a baffling system that is either dimpled or vertical. For whatever reason, horizontal baffles don’t have a lot of “give” to them so they are less comfortable for side sleepers in general.  Therm-a-Rest Neoair Xtherm is probably the warmest pad out there (not the highest R rating per se but the most effective insulation system means it is still warmer than other pads with higher R values). It may not the most comfortable for a side sleeper because of the horizontal baffles, however. But this is the pad you want if you want to prioritize warmth. If you want to prioritize comfort, Sea to Summit Ether Light XR Pro will probably not sleep as warm but will be more comfortable for a side sleeper because of the dimpled baffling system. Nemo Tensor Extreme Conditions is also very warm and only slightly less comfy than the Ether Light.  Exped Ultra 7R is a bit heavier and bulkier but is very comfy for a side sleeper. It uses down rather than reflective film for insulation. So it won’t be quite as crinkly as a lot of warm pads, but I’m not sure if the down insulation is more or less effective in this application.  Big Agnes Campmeister Deluxe is quite bulky and heavy for a backpacking pad but is super, super comfortable and has a very respectable R value of 7.  The other big, bulky “luxury” comfort backpacking pads - Exped Megamat Ultra and Therm-a-Rest Neoloft - are great options for comfort but with lower R values so they may be less warm than you might want.  Other things to consider - even a well-insulated sleeping pad will only stay as warm as your body is able to heat it. The bigger the pad, the more of your body’s heat it will draw away from you. So don’t buy a massively oversized sleeping pad thinking it will automatically be more comfortable. For insulating purposes, something that is only as big as you need it to be will be more efficient for your body to keep warm.  Make sure you take advantage of all the usual strategies for staying warm in the backcountry: Use your Nalgene as a hot water bottle and keep it in your sleeping bag/quilt with at night. Do some jumping jacks or other activity to get your heartrate and body temperature up before going to bed. Make sure you are properly hydrated and getting enough food to keep warm. Etc. 

Plus one. I have a therm-a-rest Xtherm, two cheap Amazon pads (they didn’t last), a Big Agnes, and I’ve tried the foam pads (they’re not for me). Exped seems to have the best tech. Their pads are quiet, comfy, reliable, and I love the synthetic down on the inside

Big Agnes has valve issues, mine didn't even last 3 uses