How to Make a Survival Blanket Sleeping Bag

Now that you have read the Survival Topic on How to Make a Firebed, I will show you how to maximize the warmth of a single wool blanket, tarp, or survival blanket. If you have more than one layer, all the better and we will discuss how to best combine them.

For the rest of the article I will refer to any sheet(s) of flexible material you are using for warmth as the “survival blanket”.

In the video below I show you one method of wrapping yourself up in a survival blanket while laying on the firebed. Forming a survival blanket into a sleeping bag in this way efficiently eliminates cold spots and drafts while maximizing the amount of body warmth retained.

This method doubles up much of the survival blanket on top of your body, but keeps only one layer beneath. Much of a blanket beneath you will be compressed by your body and loose much of its insulation (that is why thick padding underneath you is important), so it is better to put most of it on top. Doubling up the survival blanket also creates a layer of dead air between them, meaning that two blankets together are more than twice as warm as a single layer of the same material.