I've had my thermarest long standard since the mid 1990's and have always stored it rolled up in the stuff sack. I think it has lost some of its self-inflation ability as a result, but that's not a big deal, I just blow it up by breath, which doesn't take that long. Or it will still self-inflate if I'm willing to wait a while. It's just not as quick as when it was new. Overall I don't consider this issue terribly important, so I don't bother trying to unroll the pad for storage.