1) I've had success with a thin mat on top of a thick one plus a small but real pillow.

2) Here's a no cost trick I learned as a kid when Thermarests and the like did not exist. Scrape out a shallow "hip hole" in the ground placed, obviously, where your hip will be located. When on your side the hip is not pressing into the flat ground.

3) A propos of camping and snoring, I am reminded of a combined canoe and raft trip on the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories. One member of the group was a notorious snorer and was required to pitch his tent far from the rest us. At about 5 a.m. one morning I was woken by loud snoring. As I lay in a semi comatose but annoyed state the noise, curiously, seemed to be rising in volume. How could the snorer be getting closer I asked myself? Sleepwalking?

4) The noise seemed to change character, now more of a huffing and then bellowing was added to the mix and then roaring. Yes, that's one unhappy bear. Hmm...what to do. An unsuccessful search for my bear spray produced nothing but polyester against polyester noise. Best terminate the search. I spied my bear banger but concluded that firing it in a tent would likely burst my eardrums and set the house on fire. Loudly unzip the tent and stick my head out to investigate? Come on. Best to just lie there calmly waiting for the screams to start. Then leap into action.

5) Not to drag this out, the bear eventually left. From the tracks we found it was a grizzly, likely a mother searching for a cub. It was nice to have a comfortable Thermarest while this all transpired.