Sleeping Bag

A good sleeping bag is a good investment to make. You want a sleeping bag that is warm, but is also light and packs well. The fill in sleeping bags will either be a synthetic material or down. Down is lighter, but if it gets wet then it will retain no warmth. Synthetics are heavier, but if wet will retain some warmth to them. It's usually a matter of preference. Sleeping bags are given a temperature rating of what temperature you will stay comfortable. That will be different for different people.

Rectangular bags like you probably had as a kid are not the best for backpacking. They have lots of cold spots and it's more sleeping bag than you really need to carry. The standard is the mummy bag. There's a lot of variations to them, but the style is pretty much the same. If buying a bag I recommend actually climbing in it at the store and seeing if it's comfortable. I have rather broad shoulders and found that I needed a larger bag, a lot of mummy bags were too constrictive for me.