Feeling tired while camping? Do you ever find that you feel sluggish while camping? On the first day of the camping trip, feeling tired is totally fine. But on the next day you wake up, do you somehow notice that you are not feeling quite like yourself? Do you feel like you’ve been hiking all day and that you don’t have energy when you’ve eaten adequately? So what gives?
There are plenty of hidden reasons why you might be feeling this way. It is important to know these reasons in order to prepare before you go on your camping trip.
You may like to read: How To Clean or Wash Dishes While Camping
Feeling Tired While Camping? Stay dehydrated
Dehydration causes tiredness, as you may have heard. But what you may not have realized is that you are actually sweating without knowing it.
All of the hiking and the walking that you do while camping will make you sweat. But you may not realize it because you were in the open air and the sweat is evaporating. At the same time, you are getting more and more dehydrated, and thus more tired.
Eat protein
As you are hiking and going about your daily activities, you are using a lot of your muscle groups. Your muscles need a certain amount of protein to heal themselves after overuse. If you do not eat enough good protein, you will just feel sluggish and your muscles will be weak. Eating trail food such as peanuts can help you with keeping up your energy.
To keep your protein levels high, make sure you eat more meat the night before your hike. Another great way to increase your protein intake during your hike is to find a backpack that has a hipbelt pocket. Osprey backpacks have hip belts that let you easily access your snacks, trail foods, and other hiking essentials.
Feeling Tired While Camping: Use a sleeping pad
Do you have a tendency to just use your sleeping bag at night with nothing underneath? Using a sleeping pad can help keep up your energy in 2 ways. First, it can help you get a better night’s sleep. There is nothing worse than sleeping on the cold hard ground with just your sleeping bag.
Second, if you are just sleeping on the ground with your sleeping bag, you will just get cold at night. The sleeping pad helps to transfer the heat into its lining and keeps you warm. If you are cold at night, your body will spend most of its energy trying to get warm. If you’re not sure which sleeping pad to buy, check out our down vs synthetic sleeping bag article to help you choose the best one for your next trip.
Stay in shape
Are you getting enough exercise in between camping trips? If you are a homebody, you may not have enough stamina to withstand the hiking that is required for camping. Even if you bring a vehicle right into your camping site, there is still some heavy lifting to do.
You may need to lift your camping stove and gather some wood in order to build the fire. All of this is muscle intensive. In fact, you’ll feel the effects of camping after you get home and get a good night’s sleep. Chances are that you will wake up with some body aches due to days’ worth of exercise.
Stay in shape by taking 30 minute walks every day. Better yet, go for a jog for at least 10 minutes several times per week. This will keep your body temperature up and your muscles in shape.
Feeling Tired While Camping: Summary
Unless you have gone camping before, you may not know how you will feel when you are there. You think that it will just be fun in the sun or just sitting around a campfire. But feeling tired while camping can come on suddenly, and in this case, you will be left wondering what is wrong. You can prepare by bringing plenty of fluids, protein, and getting enough exercise.
