Cosmo Air Lite 20R

Thermarest neoairs are too loud and crinkly for me. Rab style of mattress doesn't do well for me as a side to belly sleeper. Nemo is my pick because the only air pads I've kept are Nemo. An astro non-insulated pad is my summer pad with an older cosmo insulated pad being my 30 to 55-deg pad.

Backpacking guide in AZ that hates carrying tents and recently started having back problems. I'm also a vet but non combat so that's not as relevant to my experience for this purpose. Mostly just some extra empathy. Carried my 3 piece bag system for years while guiding until it fell apart. I was a thin foam sleeper through my service trainings and through me years of guiding trips in the Canyon. I hated air pads..... until recently. Nemo or kelty. I can't remember. My key is still using using a thin foam under it to insulate and protect againat the stray thorn under a tent or tarp. Some sleeping bags now have built in pad straps but I still use some 550 to tie the 2 pads together. Also. A pillow of sorts goes a long way.

Insulated inflatable sleeping pad. Yes, an air mattress. But the ones with high R value will insulate you. Exped, Nemo, Thermarest, Sea to Summit, others. There are lightweight ones for backpacking and imaginably so they're going to tend to be more expensive. There are other ones that may be more comfort focused that aren't as light if you're just doing car camping. Get one from a company that does ASTM rating. This does kind of sound like "big sleeping pad" or a cartel. And it kind of is. But prior to them using that standard, it was the wild west. Sleeping pad manufacturers would just put any number on there that didn't mean anything. So a bunch of companies got together and decided to use this standard. It just gives you that relative comparison across brands. If you're not going below 32 f, then consider a pad that is R value 4 to 5. If you're going to be going below freezing but not necessarily below zero f, consider R value 6 or better. If you're going to be going below zero f then, you want to get up into the ones that are rated at R value 7.5+. You can stack an inflatable on top of ccf pads to increase your insulation. You can put an insulated sleeping pad on top of a cot if that's what you want to do. If you're using an inflatable, obviously you want to make sure it won't pop on the cot. About using a cot. Just getting you off the ground isn't going to make your warm. You'll still need insulation. The cot is irrelevant to heat transfer to the ground. You'd just end up with cold air under you instead of cold ground. One to look out for is the upcoming Nemo Eclipse which is supposed to be due out in march. It's going to be 4 in thick so probably comfortable. With an R value of 6.2 it should be pretty comfortable down to about zero f. No one really has information on this yet. So if you're looking to buy right now, you're going to look at other stuff. Check out the websites. If you see ones you're interested in, watch YouTube reviews. They're usually pretty good videos on most every product that's out there. I wanted to add, R value on sleeping pads and ground insulation is equally important to understanding top insulation. If using a sleeping bag or backpacking quilt, it's important to understand the EN or ISO rating. And really to look at the comfort rating. Understand also that those standards are assuming you're sleeping on a sleeping pad with an R value about 5 plus wearing base layer or thermal underwear, wool socks, and a warm hat.

Side sleeper here. Get a 4” thick inflatable mattress. My current one is some Nemo model. Any less and your hips hit the ground. Inflate it, lay on it. Adjust it till your hip is just shy of hitting ground. Sleep well.

I don’t do extended distances anymore so I would probably keep my x-gold and Nemo inflatable for comfort. I mean I do after all want to be able to get up in the morning and hike. LOL