Sleep Better- The Evolution of the Contour shape in Sleeping Pads

A conversation with Ashley Tyrrell, Sea to Summit Product Manager

“Sleep well!” – As evening draws to a close, we have all said this to someone. But what if you could sleep better?

This was the question that drove Ashley Tyrrell and her Design and Development team to extensively study the way people sleep in the outdoors.

“We wanted to find out what people meant by comfortable sleep” said Ashley. “It’s something that’s hard to define, but easy to recognize when you find it”.

The team evaluated sleep patterns and behavior, and they compared the comfort of Sea to Summit sleeping pads to competing products. They combed through blogs, online forums, sleep studies and customer reviews. As Ashley sums it up: “We spent a lot of time camping out, and when we weren’t sleeping we filled the pages of the notebooks we carried with us”.

The data consistently supported something that the outdoor industry may have missed: There isn’t “a sleep position” – people sleep in multiple positions throughout the night.

A sleeping pad that offers true comfort must allow the sleeper to change positions easily. This is the opposite of most tapered sleeping pads which are built for minimal weight – turning over in your sleep means rearranging your shoulders while you run the risk of elbows and knees hanging over the side of the pad.

Given these limitations, many end-users have moved to rectangular pads – which have drawbacks of their own. Rectangular pads do not fit into the floorplan of many lightweight and ultralight tents. And they come with a significant weight penalty.

A different solution was needed.

The breakthrough came when researching the purchase decisions of people who had bought the prior generation Sea to Summit Women’s Specific sleeping pads. Ashley realized that “folks of all genders were buying the women’s specific pads due to their “roomier” midsection shape… they were the preferred pad for side sleepers – and for people who mentioned rolling over when they slept

Maximum comfort, optimized sleeping space, minimum weight

From that point, the evolution to the Contour shape progressed quickly, with real-world testing supporting the basic concept. The final version has a normal curve at the head end, then flares out to its widest point at the upper torso level before curving back into a normal foot section. This shape offers 12% more sleep area yet weighs only marginally more than a tapered sleeping pad would. Super-light fabrics and a Horizontally-Delta Cored foam core mean that the Pursuit Pad is, in fact, the lightest in its class.

Contour self-inflating pads are perfect for those looking to minimize weight and packed volume – they offer a viable alternative to air pads for backpackers. And if you need maximum space to spread out, Sea to Summit offers Rectangular versions of both the Pursuit Self-Inflating Sleeping Pad and Pursuit Plus Self-Inflating Sleeping Pad.

In the end, it’s all about a comfortable night’s sleep. Ashley summed it up this way: “Of course, there are lighter sleeping pads on the market, but nobody ever says ‘sleep lightly’ – We want people to sleep better”