You are looking for items that are warm, lightweight, heavy-duty, and roll up compactly. This is an item that you want to scrimp on, buy the best sleeping bag for each person that you can reasonably afford that meets those criteria. Not only will this strongly influence how unpleasant or how comfortable your experience is that your ability to get good rest at night but will strongly impact your health and immune system and ability to fight off disease and infection.

Some other things to consider that will make your experience more comfortable and bearable is to use small camping pillow, a good thermal blanket, and/or begin sleeping mat/camping foam pad. All of these can be rolled up compactly in the sleeping bag make a big difference in getting you that extra warmth or layer of padding on the ground that will make you sleep more restful. The better rested, you are at night, the more likely you are to stay healthy through crisis situation.

It’s also good to get a small plastic tarp to wrap around your sleeping bag when you store it not only will it help to keep your sleeping bag more waterproof, but it can also provide an extra layer of protection on the ground helping to keep you dry at night or act as a quick shelter.

Once everything is ready, your sleeping bag should be attached to your emergency pack by bungee cords or rope (both of which are very useful in and of themselves), so that it won’t slip or fall off and will be easy for you to carry.