Can you freeze to death while sleeping?

[SerPyrro]

Just wondering if i set myself to sleep in freezing conditions, will the game wake me before its too late or will i never wake from that long dark slumber...? Thanks 👍

[hozz1235]

Depends on game setting, but it is definitely possible to freeze to death while sleeping!

Edited June 28, 2019 by hozz1235

[Comet777]

5 hours ago, SerPyrro said:

Just wondering if i set myself to sleep in freezing conditions, will the game wake me before its too late or will i never wake from that long dark slumber...? Thanks 👍

In pilgrim and voyager you will be woken before its too late but still cold. However luckily any fire of any temperature will start to warm you up, so you should be fine. On stalker and interloper you don't get woken, so if you go to sleep in a freezing area or the temperature takes a turn for the worse during the night... well lets just say you are never waking up from that sleep. 

[Doc Feral]

I think you can always freeze to death in your sleep if you start sleeping when heat indicator is already in the red zone, regardless of difficulty level. Same goes for thirst and hunger.

Edited June 29, 2019 by Doc Feral

[shade_grey]

44 minutes ago, FrozenCorpse said:

I once stumbled into a cabin in pretty bad shape after having been lost in a blizzard for awhile.  I knew the cabin was normally warm enough so I figured I was home safe.  I quickly ate, drank, set my alarm for 10 hours, climbed into bed and promptly froze to death.  It was as if I had somehow brought the blizzard in with me...

This is most probably the mountaineers' hut at TM. The general rule is: if it requires a loading screen to enter, then as long as you're above 0C while sleeping then you won't freeze. Places that don't have a loading screen are affected by the weather outside. This means that even if you're above 0C when you go to sleep, the weather might turn and get colder, causing you to freeze.

But that doesn't mean that you can't sleep safely in places without a loading screen. In stalker, no matter what weather, if you have top tier clothing, you will not freeze while sleeping in a bed in the mountaineers' hut, while in a cave, top tier clothing matched with a bear bedroll will keep you from freezing.

[Khan_Drichthyes]

I froze to death in my sleep, on voyageur.  I was camping in the wheelhouse of the Riken, which I had done so many times without incident.  A blizzard started blowing, as had so many others...  I saw my temperature rapidly drop, followed by my health. 

...I never awoke.

[ajb1978]

Unless you are trying to recover condition, never sleep for more than 2 hours at a time unless you're indoors and sleeping in an actual bed.  That way even if you do hit Freezing, you will wake up at around 60% condition, and will at least have a fighting chance to survive.

[SerPyrro]

Thanks everyone! Lots of great info there 👍

[Guest jeffpeng]

One important thing to know: temperature (almost?) never drops more than 1°C per hour. So if you go to sleep in a cave, and your FeelsLike°C is 4°C you can safely assume that you can sleep 4 hours before hitting freezing, and actually two more hours (one in -1, one in -2) before starting to take damage. That latter should only be done if your sleep is that badly needed, however. But I've seen those moments. (Especially camping on TWM in a snowshelter on day 60 in Interloper ^^)

Blizzards are of no concern since the temperature drop is only applied after you wake up - but once it is applied it stays with you until you wake up. (The reasoning behind this is a bit complex and really unintuitive)

I'm not sure how sleeping in an unsheltered location is actually affected by winds - meaning I don't know if they are calculated while you sleep and properly applied to your feels like temperature. But you don't need to know that to realize that sleeping in such a location is a bad idea in general (except you like a big bear hug to be your wake up call).

[Jolan]

48 minutes ago, FrozenCorpse said:

but I feel like there might be some players who prefer to figure these kinds of things out themselves.

I'd wondered.  I've also noticed that not all indoor spaces equal in quality of warmth

[UTC-10]

The game has three switches that may be relevant. They are accessible when starting a custom game. 

1. Environmental: Fire (automatically) overcomes ambient air temp. Any fire (within a certain range of effect) will raise air temperature to above freezing (i.e. +1 C). The description also says that will happen regardless of the amount of fuel put on the fire (basically true) and regardless of how cold it is (true). Windchill is not affected.

2. Health: Fire prevents freezing. Player can become colder while sitting next to an active fire, but will never begin to freeze.

3. Health: Wake player, when freezing, near a fire. If you start to freeze when resting (i.e. sleeping) near a fire you will wake up. Only applies to resting near a fire. (I would assume an active fire). 

All three are ON for vanilla Pilgrim and Voyager. Off for vanilla Stalker and Interloper.

The only discrepancy I know of is that for #1 it is possible to make the fire hot enough, by adding enough fuel, to get air temperature higher than just above freezing. Note that #2 and #3 both require there be a fire present to get the benefit. 

[Willy Pete]

@Comet777 I've definitely frozen to death while sleeping on Voyager...