I decided to purchase one of the balloon beds, mostly out of curiousity and also to see if it was a practical (and cheap) alternative to a "real" air mattress.

Tested it with a bivvy out on the sand dunes overlooking Wells on the Norfolk Coast, so on top of sand and where i had checked for anything sharp or that may be intrusive and after I managed to pop a few balloons in the inflation process, mostly when tying the knots and putting a hole in them, I managed to get 8 working balloons inflated and the mattress up. I then managed to pop the first one as I went to lie on it for the orst time and then various ones went during the night leaving me with two inflated balloons, a bad back and bleary eyes through lack of sleep by morning, anyone else had he same issues or am i just a heavy handed clutz?

I don't think it's just you.

IMO nights out are about being as comfy as possible while carrying the very minimum required to achieve it ... there reaches a point where the balance tips resulting in 'silly light' which leads to suffering

I can't see the point of a balloon bed over something like my Peak Elite AC or equivalent "superlight" air mattresses at 300g. The weight penalty has got to be worth it for the hassle alone.
Take some Picolax before setting off in the morning and offset the additional weight.

Balloon bed - coming to a classifieds near you........

I found the Mk 2 version with 5 larger diameter balloon works much better, but you should bear in mind it was originally designed for adventure racing where carrying as little as possible and having a bad nights sleep in the process is mandatory.

I seem to find my pillow has more effect on my sleep than what mat I'm on!

Balloon beds are a great invention if you want to spend 15 minutes when you're cold, tired and wet, inflating, tying, bursting, reinflating then inserting balloons into an awkward lilo type thing. Then lying tentatively on it to get comfy, with random pops and bangs through the night as the odd one lets go.

I just bought a Neoair xlite - double the weight of a balloon bed, but twice the comfort and less than 1/10 of the set up time.

The best thing about balloon beds on Polaris type events was listening to the suffering of those who had one. The night would be punctuated with "bang" followed by "bugger" or "sub standard" as the occupants of various tents got steadily deflated. That was probably the reason they took off - part of the challenge was to see if you could get through a night and still have all balloons left inflated in the morning - I think I managed it maybe once out of 20 or so.

Since getting the Klymit torso pad, almost every other pad for overnighters seems pointless, the balloon bed is too shiny, sleeping bag slips off as I never camp in a sensible place!