Pillows

One of the topics that comes up on r/Ultralight often - either through direct question or through improvements suggested on shakedowns - is pillows. While everyone's preferences and comfort is something they must determine personally, I usually challenge assumptions and "non negotiables" in the pillow realm. Lots of YouTube videos provide opinion on what's the "best" pillow, often ranging from the budget (Trekology, 99 grams) to the common "UL" (Sea to Summit Aeros, 63 grams), to the now-popular (Big Sky Dream Sleeper, 50 grams.) However, what is very rarely talked about is a truly UL solution: using stuff you've already got with you.
Obviously the lightest solution would be to make a pillow out of all the clothes you're not wearing to bed. A lump of clothes, however, has nothing to restrain it, so it generally doesn't work out too well. Some companies, like Zpacks, offer a stuff sack/dry bag/pillow combo to provide that restraint while being a dual use item. I've tried those, and they work, but they're still 40 grams. Granted, they're also a dry bag, but if you've got a pack liner (which most ULers do), a dry bag is not needed.
The "best" UL solution I've found is to repurpose the stuff sack from my tent - my Durston Xmid 1Pro - and stuff it with everything I'm not wearing to bed. This stuff sack, for my comfort, is the perfect size. And if one of the things I stuff into that bag is my puffy jacket, I end up with - essentially - a down pillow. It's super comfortable, and now I've got a pillow with an effective weight of 0 grams, since I'm carrying all it's components anyways. But what if I didn't have that tent with me? Like if I were on a trip with my wife, using the larger Xmid 2P (whose bag is too big to make a comfortable pillow with the amount of stuff I generally have with me), or I'm tarp camping (no stuff sack), or I'm staying in shelters, like on the Ouachita Trail? Well then, I bring a sack specifically to serve as a pillow. It's a 9" x 13" sack made of 0.56 OSY/7d ripstop nylon with a 1.18mm drawstring closure and a micro cordlock. It's weight: 4.6 grams. That's less than the weight of a quart-size ziploc freezer bag (6 grams.)
But what if it's too cold and I need to wear all or most of the clothing to bed that would otherwise stuff my pillow? That has not happened to me yet, but if it were, my backup plan would be to fill my pillow with my 2.5L Platypus water bottle.
And another objection I frequently get is if I'm not wearing everything to bed then I'm overpacking. To this I respond If you're on a short trip where uncertainty in the weather is low and you have the ability to choose a sleep system perfectly dialed in to the conditions you expect to face when wearing everything to bed, then I would agree. However, as you deviate from this strict set of assumptions, risk goes up, and with it, the level of margin necessary to cover uncertainty. Said another way, this strategy assumes the risk of a low/zero margin sleep system setup is acceptable, which is usually only reasonable over the short term. Most people choose to mitigate this uncertainty by carrying something they don't plan on wearing to bed such that if conditions warrant, they can always put that on to boost the sleep system's capability. And most trips over a couple of days in length have at least some variation that will have to be accounted for night-to-night such that there are some garments that aren't worn every night, which is exactly what I do. And as I said, if I ever were caught in a situation where I needed the clothes, I'd revert to using the Platypus bottle to fill the pillow.
If you are to adopt this pillow solution I have one bit of experience to impart you with. How you stuff the stuff sack matters. You want dense materials toward the bottom and puffy/soft materials near the top. And since most stuff sacks fill from one end, then lay on their side with the long axis of the sack providing the length of the pillow, that means that to get a comfortable result, you have to "layer" things or arrange them in the sack such that you have a "hard" or "dense" side and a soft side. If this doesn't make sense to you, it will the first time you stuff a sack to be your pillow.
Anyway, hope this helps.
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