When I was reading Tom Brown's Guide to City and Suburban Survival, he said if you're caught at home in really cold temperatures without a source of heat, to use mattresses to make a shelter. Lay one mattress on the floor, then tip up other mattresses on each side, and lay a fourth over the top. He said to build this in a corner, than drape a blanket over the opening. Body heat con be contained this way.

Sue

Execllent idea...

Might work, but it seems like all of the mattresses would have to be the same size, and it could be easily toppled if you rolled over in your sleep (or whatever) and bumped into a side. Maybe a lean-to type thing, with the upper end on a couple of nails in the wall or something, and a heavy chair to keep the floor end from sliding. Less headroom, but more stable, and less airspace to heat...

I have a mental image of you trying to hold a 90 pound dog underwater. Might be worth $10,000 on AFV...

Sue,
Now I like this one better than the hot rocks idea <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> . AND, speaking of the hot rocks, during your thread there, someone (maybe you?) did mention setting up a tent indoors to contain body heat as opposed to trying to heat an entire room. So, I personally give this one a thumbs up.

As far as the sides falling over because they were bumped into, well, nothing says a person can;t use whatever reinforcements they have at hand to help sturdy the shelter. I take from Sue's post that matresses ( and other things ) can be used to minimize heat loss, however you choose to contruct them or put them together.

Makes sense if you have that many mattress. People forget that the primary purpose of a mattress is not to make a soft spot to sleep but to insulate the warm body from the cold ground. Unfortunately, I have only the one mattress. But my bed can be rearranged to change the height. I could set it as high as possible (about three feet), put my mattress on the floor and drape the whole thing with blankets and sleep in my sleeping bag. Should keep me warm enough, especially if I can find someone to share it with <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.
I've often felt that the prime survival skill was the ability to improvise.

Seems like a good idea. Anything that will reduce the area your body needs to heat would probably help. And with a little ingenuity, there are probably a lot of things in the house/apartment you could use to make a similar shelter. As far as construction or stability, there's always that one universal survival tool . . . . duct tape.

I keep my bedroom quite cold, and sleep on a mattress with a duvet. I find it helps to have the duvet underneath me as well as on top; I guess the duvet is better insulation than the mattress itself.

That reminds me: I've been meaning to get a proper hot water bottle for ages. The one I use contains high-tech jelly that you heat in a microwave for 5 minutes. It's really good, but it won't work if power is cut. I need a lo-tech water one as backup, because I have ways of heating water that don't need electricity.