First a confession, the Prius really isn’t tiny! LOL Yes, it’s smaller than an RV, any RV, but that doesn’t mean you have to be cramped. The back seats in a Prius fold completely flat, and there is more than six feet from the front seats to the hatch, so unless you’re a basketball player, there’s plenty of length. The GenII Prius was long enough to fit a twin mattress with a few inches to spare. The GenIII is even longer.
Yes, there is the issue of head room. If you’re over 5’2″ you’ll bump your head to varying degrees if you try to sit up. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution for those times when you want to sit up in the back, stand up to dress, use a portable loo in the back of your vehicle, or invite a tall person to hang in your tiny Prius. It’s called a Habitent and it sets up in a matter of minutes! It folds up and takes no room, and it let’s you feel close to nature without ever sleeping on cold ground, rocks, or packing a muddy tent! Like any tent, you may get wet if there’s a storm, but all you have to do is close the hatch to keep dry.
The Prius can comfortably sleep two people if you’re used to sleeping two in a 3-person tent. If you’re traveling alone, it’s about as roomy as a full size mattress. Of course you can minimize the space if you need room for more stuff. This could be a fridge, camping gear, etc. All you need is a camping pad. If you want to use only half of the space, the most luxurious camp pad that will leave some space next to you is the REI Camp Dreamer XL Self-Inflating Deluxe Bed, which is 4″ thick, but can still be rolled up and tossed into a roof box when you want room for people in your car. The only downside is that it’s too wide to leave the single back seat in the upright position, and that can be really useful if you need a place to sit to wash up, change clothes, put your shoes on, etc. This is really useful if you don’t have a Habitent or didn’t set one up.
For the minimalist who still wants to sleep comfortably, the 3.5″ camping pad fits perfectly, leaving the seat upright.
Sleeping temperature and air circulation are really important to me and I don’t like carrying lots of bedding. I carry a down sleeping bag or down comforter, and an electric throw. Since the Prius is basically a giant power station you drive around in, you can leave the car on all night to provide heat or AC all night for a few cents. There’s no noxious fumes thanks to the Partial Zero Emissions engine, and the high voltage batteries provide endless power to the starter battery, which you can equip with an inverter to provide 120v AC power.
A small inverter that plugs into the cigarette socket can give you up to 300w of power, which is enough for an electric throw, they’re smaller than a twin size blanket, so they use less wattage and take up less space. Usually 100w ~ 200w.
You can also use the type of electric throws used by truckers, which run on 12v DC. This would be especially useful if you were stealth camping in the city and wanted to keep warm without turning on your car. You’d just need a small portable power station to power it. My biggest issue with these is that they heat too much and I get hot. They don’t have as many settings as a regular 100w ~ 200w throw.
The last items of concern when sleeping in the Prius, are light and privacy. The darker or more covered your windows are, the more privacy you will have, but keep in mind that turning your Prius into a black hole that you can’t see out of might make you unaware of dangers (bears, fires, a man with a bat about to smash your window). You may wish to trade off a little privacy for the ability to see out.
Some people use Reflectix, an insulation material, cut to the shape of their windows. If you’re boondocking out in nature with the power off and it’s cold, the insulation will help keep you warm but it will also keep you from seeing out. If you do this in the city, everyone will assume someone is inside sleeping, including police who might give you a ticket.
Tinting offers privacy without sacrificing visibility. One blogger recommends the combination of tinting and using curtains so that some outside light still gets in. Putting rain guards on your Prius will let you open the windows a bit, and no one will know they’re open, so you can be stealthy if you’re sleeping in the city.
If you’re like me and feel that people at campsites generally mind their own business, and privacy isn’t a huge concern, screen shades are ideal. They let in the maximum amount of air and offer privacy whenever bright lights aren’t shining inside, which is always the case once Iturn out my lights to sleep. After all, the forest is pretty dark, especially without clear view of the sky or a full moon!
I have a bug light in my car that provides just enough light to see if I’m looking for clothes, yet doesn’t give visibility to people outside. You’d have to put your nose to the window and I’d see you. The bug light also zaps any flying critters that I don’t want biting me during the night so it’s pretty awesome!
On those occasions when I need to sleep at a rest stop and there will be very bright lights, I put a sunshade on my dash and a reflectix cover on my rear window. It keeps the glaring light out, nosey people from seeing most of my interior, but still let’s me see everything around me for safety.
So there you have it, all my best advice for sleeping like royalty. I hope your sleep is fantastic!
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