Abstract
Present paper aimed to study the effects of three types of sleeping bag upon thermophysiological responses during night sleep at an ambient temperature (Ta) of 5°C, Sleeping bag A has thicker padding in its upper half than in its lower half, sleeping bag B thicker padding in its lower half than in its upper half and sleeping bag C padding of equal weight in its upper and lower halves. All three types of sleeping bag weighed 1, 880g each. Thus, the experiments were executed to know which sites of the body should be specially insulated thickly by the different padding of the sleeping bag to induce deeper sleep at the cold. The subjects retired at 22: 30, using either of the sleeping bag A, B and C, and rose at 6: 30 in the following morning. Rectal and skin temperatures at 5 sites (chest, flank, palm, sole, instep) and heart rate were measured every 10 min during the experimental period. Main results are summarized as follows: 1) The level of rectal temperatures during night sleep was kept to be the lowest in the sleeping bag B, intermediate in the sleeping bag C and the highest in the sleeping bag A. 2) Sole and instep skin temperatures were the highest in the sleeping bag B. 3) Chest skin temperatures were the highest in the sleeping bag A. 4) Heart rate resembled the behavior of rectal temperatures in three types of sleeping bag. 5) Most subjects preferred the sleeping bag B to other two types.
